{"id":1926,"date":"2010-12-08T09:19:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-08T14:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2010-12-08T09:19:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-08T14:19:22","slug":"mama-wpen-five-signs-say-shes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2010\/12\/08\/mama-wpen-five-signs-say-shes-back\/","title":{"rendered":"MAMA W\/PEN: Five Signs Say She\u2019s BACK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When Baby X and Baby Y turned one a few weeks ago, something changed in my brain. <\/span>A window opened just a crack, enough to let in the crisp air that tells me a change of seasons has transpired. <\/span>I started tweeting<\/a>. <\/span>I refreshed my Google Reader to incorporate my new focus on all things writerly and She Writes<\/a>-y. <\/span>I started playing around with a Tumblr (not really public yet, but maybe soon!). <\/span>And last Friday night, I went on a date with myself\u2014my first since my twins were born. <\/span><\/p>\n

Give a girl some moules frites, a glass of Shiraz, a notebook as a companion, and later in the evening, an old friend and a book party with some fabulous feminists (Gloria Steinem! Eve Ensler! Shelby Knox!) and suddenly she remembers who she is: A thinker. <\/span><\/em>A writer<\/em>. <\/span>Ah yes, that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I haven\u2019t been thinking lo these past twelve months. <\/span>It\u2019s that my brain has been, as they say, differently occupied. <\/span>Taking care of twins in their first year of life, along with a new start up that’s all about (did I mention?!) supporting women who write<\/a>, takes a lot of brain cells. <\/span>It made sense that parts of me went on hold to grow new things. <\/span>It\u2019s all necessary and right and true. <\/span>But here\u2019s how I know that the sleeping parts of me are once again alive and kicking:<\/p>\n

1. When last week\u2019s snarky New York Magazine cover story <\/a>about a generation of women who naively \u201cwoke up\u201d from the pill to find themselves too old to reproduce, I plugged back in to good ole gut-busting outrage. <\/span>(See Jill at Femiste\u2019s most excellent response, “Oops! I Forgot to Have Babies”<\/a>).\u00a0 And I also started compiling news round ups at She Writes, to merge my worlds–like this one, today.<\/a><\/p>\n

2. I made a batch of Tollhouse cookies on the weekend just for kicks. <\/span>I used to make them all the time (those who know me know that I have a penchant for cookie dough). I hadn\u2019t made them in, like, a year.<\/p>\n

3. I\u2019m following TEDWomen<\/a> via the shiny new TweetDeck app on my iPhone. <\/span>My buddy Courtney Martin is there, and so is dear friend Jacki Zehner, and I\u2019m feeling vicariously hooked in to the thought leading femme-o-sphere.<\/p>\n

4. In the space between things, I finished a second draft of a personal essay for an anthology. The essay is called \u201cGenderfication Starts Here\u201d and is about, guess what, the first year of raising boy\/girl twins.<\/p>\n

5. I\u2019m moisturizing again. And taking baths on the weekend with my favorite lavender gel. And lighting candles. And browsing Levenger catalogues before falling asleep. All things I did NONE of lo this past year.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious to hear. When a part of YOU goes on mental hiatus for a while and then resurfaces, what are the signs to yourself that you\u2019ve returned?<\/p>\n

Photo cred: Tayari Jones<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Baby X and Baby Y turned one a few weeks ago, something changed in my brain. A window opened just a crack, enough to let in the crisp air that tells me a change of seasons has transpired. I started tweeting. I refreshed my Google Reader to incorporate my new focus on all things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1902,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21107],"tags":[21844,21938,21941],"class_list":["post-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mama-w-pen","tag-tedwomen","tag-worklife","tag-writing-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}