Mommybloggers dish with Krisco
Mommybloggers: We love the name of your blog- Crib Ceiling. We know it is like a take-off on "the glass ceiling". Tell us what made you come up with this name and if you still feel it applies.
Krisco: Thanks. I like it too. Although I did briefly think of changing it for awhile when I thought it was giving off the wrong idea. (I even took a poll! The readers voted thumbs up, all six of them, which was flattering.)
The blog started as this social experiment of mine, where I really felt as women we had just been completely lied to – the whole “you can have it all� thing – and I wanted to start a place where other women who felt the same kind of “wha…?� going on in their lives could compare notes.
(That’s what Crib Ceiling meant – that the real reason women aren’t CEOs in proportionate numbers is just, life. And we like it this way. I would take parenthood over certainly any work I’ve ever done, any day. But why wasn’t any of this pointed out to me, say, earlier in life?)
Anyway, it quickly devolved to, just, pretty much about me. I couldn’t stay on that semi-pro-anti-feminist thing longer than about a week.
Does it still fit my blog? I don’t know. The voters said keep it, and by the time I was done feeding the kids, picking up the house, and finishing my work-work, I was too tired to do anything about it…. : )
Mommybloggers: Your blog originally started with 3 of you: You, your sister and cousin. have you locked them in a closet somewhere so that you can do all of the posting and get all of the glory now?
Krisco: Absolutely. They’ve been booted to the closet. I hope someone is feeding their kids.
Actually, I talked them into it before they’d even read a blog. I was very advanced, having been reading both gawker and opinionistas for about a week when I decided to jump in.
I thought it would be a fun project for us to do together; plus they each had small children, one was working, one was a SAHM. I thought it was the perfect mix for the blog.
But they never quite really got the whole “blog� thing. Like reading them. Or logging in. Or posting regularly.
I actually think they both think they are still involved, and are waiting to send in their yearly reports.
Mommybloggers: What kind of kid were you growing up? Do you see those same traits coming out in your girls?
Krisco: As a very little kid, I was a little quiet. Turned out that was due in part to the fact I couldn’t see (how does everyone know what is going on? what IS going on?). Once I got glasses in third grade, I really took off. (Ironically!) Or, at least, I was always farily social. I never hung with the real popular crowd, but I always hung with pretty much everybody else. And if they didn’t know each other, I’d make sure they’d meet.
I was always proud of a party I had in high school that had all these fun people from all the different cliques. They were all happy to meet each other (and surprised they liked each other) even though it was already second semester senior year.
At 4 and 2, I think it’s a little too early to tell if my girls will be the social-connector type person that I always was. (Or, as I like to say, honorary member of every group, regular member of none…) But I have noticed Little Big Girl, and Tiny Person, will kind of hang back and scope out a scene for awhile. And then something happens – they see someone they know, or they just get comfortable with themselves – and they are off and running and having a good time. That part looks familiar.
Mommybloggers: Tell us a secret.
Krisco: I don’t understand subtle-speak at all. If you try to tell me something – you know – without really saying it - I won’t know what you’re saying. I won’t even know that you’re TRYING to tell me something.
I once realized THREE YEARS later that a woman I knew in college was trying to hit on me. This whole – Joan Armatrading – look for the song until we find it – I did not get it until one day walking through my law school campus three years later. Ditto some lesson my 7th grade science teacher was trying to impart but never stated out loud – it occurred to me my first year in law school. (Must have been something about law school. And the Socratic process. Or a bored brain.)
It’s nothing personal. I’d love to speak that language with you. I just can’t.
Mommybloggers: Were you really afraid Jenn would snub you at BlogHer? (You know, you made her cry like a sissy girl who got her braids pulled when she read that. But going on a road trip to the urine liquor store helped and now she loves you forever and owes you a non-stinky trip somewhere.)
Krisco: I was SO afraid Jenn would snub me at BlogHer. I just KNEW it!!
Actually, not at all. And the only reason I even teased someone I’d never even met is because she so seemed like someone who WOULDN’T snub anybody. Who, instead, would be mobbed by well-wishers and be nice to everyone. And she was!
Although my experience of meeting bloggers in person is somewhat limited – limited to the 600-plus people I saw at BlogHer, pared to the probably 60 I talked to in person and the 20 of whose blogs I’d discovered before then – blogs seem to represent their owners pretty well. I think it’s hard to bluff who you are for very long, if you post consistently.
Or so that’s my theory.
So I knew Jenn would be nice and Jenny would be a screeching beyatch…..JUST KIDDING!!
Jenny: Note to self - Must. Work. On. Social. Skills
(And as for that urine-smelling liquor store run – thanks! Now I can smell it all over again! I think you owe me a liquor run that does NOT include stinky, weaving men. Maybe if we don’t let Mary Tsao drive. Just a thought.)
Mommybloggers: Using only 7 words, describe yourself so that our readers feel like they know the real Krisco.
Krisco: funny
irreverent
nose in a book or other reading material (new math where 8 = 1)
tall
kind
perceptive
analytical
Mommybloggers: What are you passionate about? Share your passion with us!
Krisco: I get passionate about a bunch of different topics.
Right now I’m passionate about this retail development that is supposed to get built in our tiny town, but which easily might get derailed as it has for the last forty years. (YES we still have no Target. It is an on-going theme on my blog.)
I’m also fairly passionate about processes and fairness. I always end up fixing the processes at any workplace I’m at. I currently volunteer to facilitate some regular meetings in town because I just can’t stand the thought of people having meetings that go on for hours with no reason.
Kind of a random thing to be passionate about, but there it is.
I’m always passionate about politics, but don’t get me started. I try to limit it on the blog to things I just can’t help myself from ranting about. (Hint: fairness, processes, fairness…)
Finally, I’m pretty passionate about not losing my mind in a small town raising small children, and trying to find a good balance for them, my husband, and for me.
Mommybloggers: Now be honest, how many times a day do you think about blogging?
Krisco: Constantly. I can’t really do the math on how many times a day that is, because I’m not very good at math, but it’s a lot.
Actually, now that I am working again (I almost said “have a job�, but I don’t! I’m an independent contractor earning commissions!) I don’t have time to think about it as much during the day. Other than once in awhile to think – did I post that? Did I even write it yet? I wrote it in my head twice last night, did it make it to the screen? And did I put that person’s link up yet? And what IS dooce saying today? And wha – your house is wha –OOOOOOHHHH, right right right…..yes, uh huh, I’m with you, the house thing, right, right, right.
(Just kidding on that last part. I am ALL THERE when we’re talking real estate. Seriously.)
Mommyblogger: (You know we have to ask it...) What do you think of the term mommyblogger?
Krisco: I love the term Mommyblogger. Mostly in the whole Vagina Monologue kind of a way – I think we need to own the term.
Also, in the way that most women – and not all, and I mean no offense or judgment – but a whole lot of the majority of women out there become moms of one sort or another, so ergo most women who blog are mothers, and guess what? Most women out there doing anything either will be or already are - moms.
And being a mom doesn’t preclude you from thinking about or writing about or having an opinion that matters about anything else in the world. In fact, it somewhat makes you more qualified if not considerably more interested in some topics than you were before.
Plus I love talking about my kids. Have I mentioned my kids?
So I’m proud to be a Mommyblogger.
Mommybloggers: How much of yourself do you put out there? Meaning, do you censor what you say or are you all out there with whatever you want to say or talk about?
Krisco: At first I didn’t really censor. I find as I go, I censor more – it’s either that or I have more things to say which makes me realize not all things can be said.
Probably if I had an anonymous blog, I would say more. But I live in a small town, plus people I know from other parts of my life read the blog . . . I try to only say things I wouldn’t mind saying to someone’s face or standing up next to on a billboard. Because I guess it’s about the same thing.
Mommybloggers: If "they" were to make your life into a TV reality show, what would they title it? Would it be a comedy or drama? Explain. (Or try to with such an "out there" question!)
Krisco: Oh please, a comedy! If it turned out to be a drama, now THAT would be a drama!
Let’s see, a name . . . Beautiful Girl Totally Misunderstood By the Whole Freaking World.
No, wait, that’s not really accurate. I don’t totally qualify as Beautiful, and I make myself pretty well understood most times.
Plus, you said reality show. So that means it has to be a contest. Who Can Marry A Physicist, Move to A Small Remote Science Town, Have Three Careers, Raise Small Children, And Not Go Insane?
Yeah. Try that one.
Mommybloggers: We know that it took a while for your Mommy BlogHer tattoo to wear off. Do you need more? We have more. A lot more. Many more. Do you want another one? We're just sayin'... We'll send them to you so you will never forget and always remember the rocking good time you had. (No, it has nothing to do with our excess supply!)
Krisco: I swear to you, if you send me one, I will put it on. But maybe not on my lower wrist, in the summer, in the arid southwest, at a new job, where everyone at work including clients, none of whom HAD EVEN HEARD OF A BLOG, keep asking me what it is.
Because, as we know, it will last approximately FOREVER.
My husband has other ideas on where to put it but that’s another topic.
Mommybloggers: And here are the questions we subject all of our featured bloggers to (*With apologies to Bernard Pivot and Inside the Actors Studio):
1. What is your favorite parent related word?
Mommy.
Spoken in almost any tone. Except the whining one.
2. What is your least favorite parent related word?
MAAAAAAMEEEEEEEE
The whining one.
3. What is your favorite creative censored curse word used around
children?
I have none. They get the real deal.
(Yesterday Tiny Person was saying, quite sweetly, “goddammit, goddammit� because someone had shut the doors on her little pop-up animal head game. I said, honey, even though mommy says that, it’s not the greatest thing. Mommy needs to stop saying it. Maybe we could say gol darn it? And she immediately switched to, just as sweetly: gol dammit, gol dammit. See? She doesn’t even know which parts are bad. I think I’m in the clear here.)
4. What is your favorite hiding place within your home when you need to get away from it all?
And I am not making this up, I so don’t have one. My desk is in the family room, it’s all next to the kitchen, our bedroom is a free-for-all.
It’s possible if I hid in THEIR closet they might not find me.
5. What hiding place have you been found in too often and can no longer use?
I reiterate, I have none. I thought the shower might work for awhile, but Tiny Person has no problem pulling the shower curtain back and demanding things like being put on the potty RIGHT NOW for the poop.
(Maybe we’re getting somewhere on why I’ve gone back to work . . . )
6. If Oprah exists, what would you like to hear her say when you arrive at the Oprah Winfrey show when she features the Mommybloggers?
Krisco! I have SO been looking forward to meeting you! You’re hilarious!
And she’ll end the show with –
Won’t you come to my house after the show, and we’ll be friends forever? Also, I think I need you to help me sell my house!
Check back tomorrow as we turn Mommybloggers over to Krisco - she's got a great essay planned!
Comments
Great interview Krisco! See? I TOLD you everything would be fine. You're so funny!
Karen
xo
Posted by: Karen Rani | October 19, 2006 5:45 PM