This is not a shoe blog: Some mornings start with a shoe-gasm

Today was one of them. I rolled over, weary from being up too late on the phone and with my hair a crazy, curly mess and desperate to stay nested in the covers just a few minutes more, when these beauties from my past tapped me gently on the shoulder and whispered my name in a slow, drawn-out, syrupy voice.

Jesssssica. Remember me? I came back for you.

Oh, I remember. I remember you well, granny boots.

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Give them lots and lots of oatmeal: Quaker Oats contest to help end hunger

It's cold here. Very cold. My heating bill is astronomical and I've already worn through my cute little wellies this winter. And as much as I - and every other Chicagoan I know, love and nod at understandingly as we scrape ice from our windshields while our heaters blast and defrosters chug along and kids yell from inside the car in the early morning hours - complain about the winter, we also know how to do it right. We bundle. We huddle. We leap across puddles of slush. We shovel with one hand, hold a cup of coffee to sip in the other.

And of course, we eat oatmeal. I'm one of those hard-core breakfast mommies, anyway. And (shhh) although I admit to you that Lil E does eat his own bowl in front of "Martha Speaks" every morning, at least I know that while is little brain is mushing out (no! no! it's about learning words and ethical lessons!), his belly is full and warm and he's getting ready for a big, exhausting day of making pink flubber and pretending to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The oatmeal's the good stuff that gets it all started in the morning, before braving the elements and preschooler insistance on playing robot man. Again.

So when I was asked to be a part of the Quaker Oats Start With Substance campaign, I was thrilled. It includes this SWEET(i prefer with honey, Lil E loves the brown sugar) 25 Bloggers, 25 Days contest. For now, I am the blogger, and this is the day. Here is the fabulous part of this contest: It is a big push to get oatmeal out to the people in need. Quaker has a goal of giving out 1 million bowls of oatmeal to help end childhood hunger. How could anyone choose not to participate in that effort?

Now, on to the contest. The blogger who can cajole, bribe and sweet-talk (ok, maybe with maple syrup this time) friends and readers to vote (and the voting is fun and pretty cool, even to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) within 24 hours (GO, GO!) will win a $5000 donation to be designated to their hunger charity of choice by The Quaker Oats Company. It starts NOW. And here's what I am asking you to do to help us help kids get those full, warm, day-preparing bellies full of oatmeal:

1. Visit Start with Substance and read the rules.

2.  Log in to your Facebook account (ha! as if you weren't already) and become a fan of the Quaker Oats Facebook page  (little button on the right).

3. This is the fun part. Download the Quaker man face. Make it into a fancy mask, talk to him, ask him questions, propose he guest blog for you today...whatever tricks your trigger. Hey, print off four. Your kids and hubs will want one too.

4. Print it, take a photo or video of you, or a family member(s) with the Quaker man and upload your picture to the Quaker Facebook page.

5.  Leave the URL of your photo or video in the comments here (this is critical so we can track how many of you are voting for lil ol Sassafrass to win this big thing).

Easy peasy, right? Check out the Facebook page. You will be hooked when you see the hilarious pictures.

A little something for you:
Quaker's given me two coupons, each good for $1.00 off two Quaker Oats' products, and they are for me to pass on to you. They've also given a case of oatmeal to a food bank, right here in the city where I'm shoveling snow. Leave a comment in this post and I will randomly choose two chatty readers to get the coupons. Again, so simple!

There's a bit more business to take care of, so do mind this official stuff:
The Quaker Man logo must remain in intact and may not be modified in any manner. Readers must use the exact download of the image, and all entries need to be wholesome in nature. No nudity, defamation, obscene language or inappropriate, rude behavior in the photograph submitted will be accepted. Compliance with these rules is subject to the sole discretion of The Quaker Oats Company.This program is taking place over 25 business days and the blogger who gets the most Reader submissions by 9 a.m. CST the following morning, (within 24 hours) will win the opportunity to select a hunger charity of their choice to receive a $5000.00 donation made to the charity by The Quaker Oats Company.

Won't you please join me in this cause that I know we all care about? I need your help, Quaker needs your help and, most of all, these kids need us all to take part in doing this the right way.

THIS ENDS TOMORROW MORNING AT 9 a.m.! So get cracking, my friends. Get on it and then get back to your oatmeal and sidewalk salting.

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Linkety Dinkety Doo: These things come in triplets

1. This thrills me. OK, so it's a little geeky thrill. But still, I can't help but delight in the idea that blogs could fuel more grassroots print media.

A quick back-story because one of my best friends, Molls, is in labor as I type and I'm feeling anxiously chatty: Once upon a time, I produced a 'zine with a grad school friend, a baby that was conceived over many clove cigarettes and 50-cent coffee refills at off-campus cafes in a small town in Oregon. When I read this article, it brought back wonderful and agonizing memories of creating ads in the computer lab, begging academic committees for grants and meticulously planning readings and receptions full of angst and exhilaration and exhaustion at producing an anthology from scratch paper sketches and a shared idea. My mother warned me that all of the carefully penned poems I self-published back then were to explicit and I'd get that once I had a child of my own. I scoffed with a radical feminist sneer and kept on selling copies for a dollar a piece. Now I have boxes and boxes of extras of each of the three editions we put out and every time I see them in my storage space, I cringe to think of explaining such works of literary genius and artistic expression as "The Fourth Time We Ever Did It" to my son. I'm not ashamed, just not amped to air all that dirty verse. All in good time, I guess. And no, I will not be submitting that one poem to any other printed publication, thank you.

2. A new namesake! And maybe because she so reminds me of the woman on the cover of that one Matthew Sweet album, I love her. (Need a recap of all the other Jessica Ashleys crowding up the internet? Here you go, loves.) How could you not love an all-blond (now) model who "loves colorful shoots"?

3. Until I can buy incredibly over-priced rocker onesies for Molls' baby (Lil E's convinced it is a boy and will come today, so hopefully that shopping spree will be tomorrow), why not buy shoes? Peep toe-wearing season seems a million years away (unless I would be crazy enough to risk losing those black cherry pedicured toes to frostbite, which I am...let's be honest, pretty sure...I am not). But wouldn't these retro-ish, pin-uppy lovelies be the perfect welcome to spring weather? They're so Sassafrass, they give me shivers. 

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