It was time I ordered some Peet’s again and I’m enjoying the Arabian Mocha Java like it’s nobody’s business. But let me tell you: make it your business! It’s delish and smooth. Get some and tell me if you can taste the “bittersweet chocolate overtones” or else just tell me that it’s delish.

Here I am in 10 seconds or less (for those of you who don’t know who the heck I am because you’re here saying, “Who the heck is she?“)

I’ve written online for almost 3 years and quit a while back to get a different job in my school district and I’m proud to say that I’m now employed as a high school guidance dean.

My oldest child is 21. I’m 36. Do the math. I tell that story more than any other story.

My kids say funny, inappropriate stuff that I write down and share with the world. For example, while frosting a cake with my mother the other day Mallory could be heard saying, “Oh, yeah. That’s it! Spread it like herpes!”

When I went to Disneyland recently (by myself, no children, I’m not bitter) I cried when I saw my first princess. You can make a guess which one, but the point is that I cried. What am I, 12-years old again? I teared up.

*This is the kind of stuff I find hilariously freakish and necessary for a good life. A whole bunch of WTF went on in my brain and then as I continued to watch I was fascinated and clapping like I wanted Tinkerbell to show up. Shit is amazing.

If you want to join in the fun (going to the BlogHer conference or not), see this post for directions! Nice to meet ya!

*edited to add: More details can be found here as written by BlogHer co-founder Lisa Stone. Thanks for the nice words, Lisa!

I’m having coffee with a girlfriend this morning to celebrate my new job. It’s robust, strong, and complex. That’s about all I can say about the new job thus far. The coffee, however, is a dark blend with a smooth aftertaste. Fitting, no? I’ll say more later about the job. The coffee, too.

*I am having slow server issues so please be patient. Go make a quick snack and check back to read through this post.

We all know that blogging/writing has evolved much in the last few years and I’m no exception to this. When I started writing my Allen series I had no idea where it would go and then I took all that I learned about writing and have decided to get it published in my free time.

That is, for you “free time virgins”, the hours between midnight and 6 a.m. I realize that what I’ve done with that time is look at the back of my eyelids, so I’m not putting pressure on myself to get it done quickly. It will happen.

Beginning to write seriously meant that I had to discipline myself to take the craft to the next level. Honestly, though, I’ve taught reading and writing for over 13 years at various levels yet I never loved to write until I started Mocha Momma as a personal website. I’ve toyed with so many options: writing strictly about education, writing about my family and daily happenings, tackling politics and racism and plain old insights about humanity. Most days I can’t get that meta because let’s face it: meta takes work and I have a family, a full-time job, and school.

Then came the realization that there were other writers that I wanted to read and eventually meet. Most of them, I assumed, didn’t know me or my writing and when I got to BlogHer06 last year I found that I was wrong. People knew. They referenced things I had written, wanted to know if my family really was that funny (they’re funny? really?) or if the party that was going on in my head really was that fascinating. That’s just how this brain works and I can’t rewire it now unless I want to get some shock therapy but I don’t think that would even be necessary. My brain is WIRED weird.

My point is that it really helped in knowing some things about the women I was going to meet last year at the BlogHer conference, but I was overwhelmed in trying to read everything about them. This year the number of women attending has doubled which means that much more amazing writers will get to mingle and learn from one another. What if I wrote a post that took 10 seconds to read and then you could go on your merry way or click on another attendees blog to read about them in 10 seconds? Wouldn’t life be much happier?

That’s what I thought.

So steal this button right here, insert it in a post about yourself tomorrow, and write something you want us to know about you that we can read in 10 seconds. It can be a bullet post or a photo essay or a vlog or anything you want. Go crazy, kids.

See you in 10 seconds.

Here is the button you will need. NEED.

Thanks to this great lady at Rocks In My Dryer for designing this button. (And I hope you feel better today!) You can pull it from this link right here, save it to your hard drive, and then plug it into your post. Happy plugging and posting!

There are pictures of California, stories to be told, and people to publicly humiliate, but I need more time to organize some things.

This will be a short post. Perhaps you can read it in 10 seconds.

There is a lot of stuff going on (yes! again! Don’t you love the drama here?) and I have two things to share with anyone who can actually get to this website without waiting for 45 minutes, but I know that I am having some server issues and that’s it’s difficult. You will get a piece of candy if you can be patient and wait. Maybe even a sucker.

Crap. Are those 10 seconds up yet?

Then I’ll be quick. Tomorrow soon soonish there will be some information about my career that I may be able to share and also a little BlogHer thingie to do like we did last year and lots of people seemed to really like, but more inclusive. So get those pictures of yourself ready, start thinking about what you’d like everyone to know about you, and enjoy that candy now.

It’s peppermint. You have nice, fresh breath.