It’s been a while since I’ve written. The weather is cooler, thank goodness. I love cooler weather and have been walking every day. I attended the online Muse Writer Conference, and it was a pleasant week of chats and forums. Even online, I was shy, but I managed to ask one question, and it was enlightening as a first-timer. More details are at http://www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com/index.htm The trip to the mountains was great too. I highly recommend Pigeon Forge, TN as a fall destination.

I reapplied for the temporary job I held for a year. If I’m lucky, I will get rehired for another year. I visit a board that discusses this job, and it is hard to tell who is eligible for that second year. Some people get rehired, and others don’t. Time will tell which category I will fall into. My mindset has been on this job so long, but I am looking at other online work and am positive something will turn up soon.

To pass the time, I’ve been reading. With Halloween so close, it is appropriate vampires are the theme. I read the first book in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series. I enjoyed it and want to read more. I also have one of Stephanie Meyer’s books. They have been so popular I look forward to see if I can get swept up in the mania. Excuse me while I go read!

This commercial has been running for awhile now. It portrays a boy who is with his mother at a bank on “Take Your Child to Work Day”. The boy sees the vacuum feature at the drive-through window, and he puts all kinds of stuff through it, hitting a guy’s car. The commercial is for car insurance, but I don’t care as the kid and his mother need a serious punishment. I hardly watch commercials, but this one caught my eye and got my blood boiling. Internet response seems to vary between love and hate for the commercial. Thankfully, I work at home and don’t have to put up with this.

My secrets aren’t really dirty. Nothing immoral or illegal. They’re just personal medical details I don’t like to tell about myself. One the one hand, I want to be private and professional, but on the other hand, as a writer, I want to write about myself. Writers are narcissists that way. Actually, ten years ago, I did write about my medical condition as a confused, exhilarated, and scared twentysomething at

www.obgyn.net/women/women.asp?page=/women/articles/comfort/comfort008

The gist of the piece is I have Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser Syndrome(quite a mouthful) or more simply MRKH. More details are in the above essay “MRKH Madness“, but basically, I was born with an incomplete uterus, no cervix, and a very short vagina. I’ve never had a period and can not have a child unless I use a gestational surrogate or adopt. What I’ve learned over the years is that the condition is not as important as how I react to it. In “MRKH Madness”, I relayed how I developed anxiety disorder including obsessive compulsive disorder and phobias. I discussed how I overcame the anxiety through therapy and Prozac. So to sound like a cheesy entertainment show, where am I now? I am still on Prozac and have started taken another medication Buspar. I still have anxiety and have chosen to be single and childfree.

Another reason I like to write about this “uncomfortable to talk about condition” is for my fellow MRKH sisters. Since this is a rare condition, there is not much known about MRKH in mainstream medical fields. It is not unusual that many medical professionals have never heard of it. So not only is the diagnosis devastating(especially during the fragile teen years), we often feel alone and freakish.

Here comes the Internet to empower us with not only knowledge of MRKH but with connections to other women with the condition. There are email groups for MRKH women where we can talk about MRKH-related matters such as surgeries, various medical problems, and relationships. It’s Sex and the City for the MRKH set. There are women from teens to menopausal from all over the world including the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. Women have gotten together for meetups, and there is an annual conference in Boston.

I get further justification for writing about this on the Internet when I hear from MRKH women who read “MRKH Madness” as their first online MRKH piece. If I’m lucky enough, maybe someone will read this as their online introduction to MRKH and see the light at the end of the tunnel. To my MRKH sisters, you rock.

I have to wait a couple of months to go back to my temporary job(fingers and toes crossed), and I have been trying to fill the spare time. I’ve been catching up on my reading, and playing around on the Internet.

The book The Memorykeeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is as engrossing as everyone says it is. I’m almost finished reading the latest in the Hitchcock Sewell series by Tim Cockey. There does not seem much publicity around this series, but if you enjoy Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series or comedic mysteries, this is good to try. Sewell is a smart-mouthed undertaker who always ends up embroiled in murder mysteries with a wacky cast of characters. Most of my books come from the library. I keep a list of books and their release dates, and I can reserve online. I only buy books that I really, really want or get them as gifts.

I have also been watching TV, mainly reality shows, until the shows come back in the fall. I watch Monk since I relate to the character with the obsessive compulsive disorder. I have anxiety disorder as well as OCD. That is another blog post in itself. I look online at different freelance jobs that I can do quickly, but either the pay is too low, or the job is too long-term.  Back to the lazy, hazy crazy days of summer.

This site belongs to Anne Wayman, a freelance writer who used to be an About.com guide. It has freelance jobs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I found a great temporary job here.

http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/

This site belongs to Deborah Ng, a writer/blogger. Freelance jobs are posted every day.

http://www.guru.com

Guru.com is a site where professionals can bid on jobs. You can have a limited free subscription where the site gets a portion of the job payment, or you can have a paid subscription which is supposed to have more perks. I have the free. Many of the jobs are low-paying, but I got a good project that lasted for months.

Even when I’m overloaded with freelance work, I always make time for these websites:

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com

Televisionwithoutpity.com or TWOP. Years ago, I found this site which indulges my television loves and hates. It started when I started watching “Sex and the City” on cable and read TWOP’s funny recaps. It also let me know what dirty parts had been edited out. Besides recaps for certain shows, they have forums for all shows. The forums can be funniest of all. In the early years, the Flavor of Love forums were better and funnier than the show itself.

The only complaint I have about TWOP is they took down the forum about the TLC show “Jon and Kate plus Eight”. To my knowledge, it is the first forum they have taken down. Supposedly it was due to too much fighting among posters. I’d like to think Kate Gosselin smashed it with her mighty uterus. But never fear, the Internet is always here. We can get the Jon/Kate fix on at

http://gosselinswithoutpity.blogspot.com/

Gosselins without pity. This blog is an honest look at the TV show. There are funny recaps and different Gosselin-related news items. The comments are as good as the actual posts with Gosselin lovers, detractors, and everyone in between.

celebritybabies.typepad.com

Celebrity babies blog. I’m happily childfree, but I can’t resist looking at celebrity kids on this site. The comments are interesting as mothers debate different things. I will remain a snarky observer only.

Bimbo is a word that should be used more often. Nowadays, we get cruder sounding words like skank or slitch. I remember hearing “bimbo” on an episode of Laverne and Shirley and have liked it ever since. Here are my top bimbos:

1. Denise Richards. Her reality show on E shows her in all her bimbo glory. I don’t care if she’s a mother.

2. Brooke and Donna Logan on the soap The Bold and The Beautiful. I know they are fictional, but these blond, men-sharing hussies(another good word) can’t be beat in bimboland.

3. Beth Ostrosky. Radio shock jock Howard Stern’s fiance. She’s a bimbo with a heart of gold. Her goal is to save the animals while looking stylish. Bimbo Beth O even rhymes.

I’m not saying being a bimbo is a bad thing. It takes a certain skill to play men like this.

Hello. I am the billionth freelance writer to start a blog. Where is my prize? I’ve been freelance writing and researching for eight years and have just put on the blogger hat. I have a big head so I hope it fits. I’m mainly a book reviewer for online and print, but I’ve also written quizzes, profiles, and medical articles. I’ve ghostwritten keyword articles for websites(how many times can I put the keyword “wine” in an article without getting drunk), and my latest writing effort was at Viewpoints.com. I’ve just finished a year-long assignment with a major search engine as a researcher, and I’m hoping I can get hired on again in a few months.

What makes me different from other writers is I won’t be complaining about juggling writing and kids even though I would like to try to juggle kids(hope I don’t drop any). No kids, no pets, no problem. Other than chronicling my very exciting writing life, I hope to add some celebrity snark. I will recommend books like a fifth-rate Oprah. I just finished reading Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich(not her best but a fun summer read) and am now reading a book about the TV show Ugly Betty. I’m a TV addict who shoots up sitcoms, reality shows, and soaps. I will also talk about the occasional travel; I just came back from Williamburg, Virginia where I stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, an indoor water park. One word to describe it: “wet”.  I think I’ve rambled enough so I will go find children for my juggling act.