Photo taken by Ashlie's friend Carrie

The Bon Jovi concert Saturday night was absolutely amazing.  Kid Rock opened...and was OK.  I like a couple of his songs.  Then Bon Jovi played for about 2 1/2 hours straight.  They've been at this for 27 years and can still ROCK.

My sister texted me after the concert: Next time we're going to sit close enough to get sweat on.

Consider me IN.

Jon Bon Jovi is a lyrical genius.  I guarantee you can find a song that will resonate with you at any given point in your life.

Case in point: Someday I'll be Saturday Night (warning: if you click the link it autoplays).

If you can't listen right now...this is the chorus:

Hey. Man.  I'm alive.

I'm takin' each day and night at a time.

I'm feeling like a Monday, but someday I'll be Saturday night.

You probably haven't heard this one on the radio.  It's not one of their huge hits.  But it sums up how I am feeling today.

Today I am going to my friend's funeral.  Today feels worse than a Monday.

But that Saturday night...well, when I'm singing this song, I'll be thinking of last Saturday night.  That was a good one.  Someday I'll be there again.

Also, they should take away my blogger card.  My cell phone battery died and my memory card was full in my camera.  I wasn't able to take pictures...but my friend Carrie offered hers.  Thank you, Carrie!

Have you heard about the new Reality TV series being developed about Mom Bloggers?  The producers of Project Mom Casting have an open casting call and are looking to connect with Moms at BlogHer'10 next week.  They will be granting interviews based on entries supplied by midnight Monday, July 26, 2010.  I figure, what the heck, it's worth a shot.  Right?  

So here's my entry:

Mommycosm is a world where motherhood is fueled by yoga and pilates...or yoda, pie and lattes, depending on the day. 

Hi, Mom Casting!  I’m Kim Grenon, aka Ashlie, the Mommy behind Mommycosm.

My entry 3+ years ago into the blogosphere happened serendipitously.  I was rocking my SAHM gig when an ex-employer offered me a web research opportunity.  I could work solely from home...in my pjs at midnight if I wanted.  Seriously, I wasn’t looking for an at-home job just then, but it felt like a no brainer.

I distinctly remember my boss outlining the first project.  He wanted me to gather lots of information about top blogs.  I remember asking “Um, what’s a blog?!”  He assigned me the task to set one up from scratch to see how it is done.

So, I did.  I set up Mommycosm.  Task accomplished and we all moved on.  Right?

Not so much.

You see, I found my voice and continued to blog - on my own time, of course.  I didn’t realize how lonely I was until I started to make these amazing connections with other moms...and dads...and dogs.  Also, it felt good to shake “mommy brain” enough to formulate complete sentences in a forum where I wasn’t being interrupted 50 times. 

That’s gold, people.  Solid gold...with sparkly diamonds.  

After I established a decent readership, opportunities to review free products and represent brands that I actually use practically started to come out of nowhere.

Needless to say, this blogging thing stuck - well beyond that first task within that first project.  It stuck well beyond the next project...and the next.  It even stuck after my boss decided to close the company a few months ago.

So, here I am.  Why?  For the free products? 

Nah.

Mommycosm isn’t the biggest nor most monetized Mom blog.  It has been online since 2007, which practically makes it a dinosaur in blogging years.

I continue to blog for 2 reasons:

1. Through the sharing of day-to-day stories, I have made real connections with many fabulous people.
2. Through the sharing of day-to-day stories, I have also made a real connection to...myself.

I am no longer afraid to call myself a writer.  I realize now that other parents both love their kids with the fiery passion of the sun AND want to run away some days.  I found that my heart has the ability to ache over the loss of other people’s children - even when I have never met them in person.  I now know that it is worth the embarrassment to get fitted into the right sized bra.  I have learned how to be a better marriage partner and how not to let resentment grow.  Just as important, I’ve learned that other married couples are not having sex every night either.  I have learned that one cup of coffee a day is a NEED, not a want.  Praise be.  I am not alone.

This fall both of my kids will be in school full days.  This is the first time in 8 years I will have significant "me time."  I am unsure how I will fill it.  While I continue to travel down a road of self-discovery, I will continue to blog along the way.

This is my blogging journey.  This is the reality of Mommycosm.

Sometimes I think our lives can be viewed from a far away distance as bouncing balls. 

(No, I haven't lost it - completely.  Stay with me here.)

We hit highs and lows and keep bouncing along.  Some of us are good at bouncing steadily and rhythmic - like professional basketball players doing dribbling drills.  Within my day-to-day life, I aspire to be a good dribbler (Ha!  Perhaps that should be my new tagline, no?!)  I find comfort in rhythm. 

Sometimes, an unexpected outside force touches our lives.  It pushes us into a chaotic bouncing of extreme highs and lows while we try to adjust and re-establish rhythm.

That's where I am right now.  There have been so many highs and lows in my life over the last week.

I apologize for the bullets, but I have SO much to tell you and it's the only way I can function right now. 

Here it goes:

• (low) One of my childhood friends unexpectedly died in a car accident.
• (high) I love my readers/family/friends.  Thank you all so very much for your kind words in person, comments, tweets and emails.  I am no longer sobbing in fetal position.
• (low) I have been experiencing waves of, I don't know, panic attacks?  I guess that's what they could be called.  Like yesterday when I had to drive past the exact spot where her car ran off the road.  I often need to remind myself to breathe - and, well, that should just come naturally, shouldn't it?
• (high) My dad was here for a visit from SC and stayed over my house for two nights.  It was great to spend time with him, despite the atypical chaos that surrounded me.  I love the relationship we have now that I am an adult...we had our rocky moments when I was younger.  I love that my kids adore him.  It was such a great visit.
• (low) I thought I got in a fight with someone...but it wasn't really with THAT someone because someone else hijacked their email and posed as them to say mean things to me.  Ugh.  That's all I can say about that in the public forum.  It would make great blog fodder if it wasn't so personal and disturbing.  It was extremely hurtful, especially considering the timing because I was already a mess over losing my friend.
• (high) I went to a Bon Jovi concert last night at Gilette Stadium.  After 27 years, they can still ROCK like no other band I have ever seen.  They played for 2 1/2 hours straight.  Amazing, amazing night.
• (low) I haven't been able to go to yoga since my friend's death.  Partly because it's been a bit crazy here - partly because I fear a wave hitting me, causing me to sob like a dweeb in the middle of class.
• (high) I WON AN ENERGIZER SMART CHARGHER SPONSORSHIP TO BLOGHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I cannot tell you how very excited I am.  Thank you to everyone who helped with my entry, tweeted, liked Energizer on Facebook or just thought positive thoughts on my behalf.  I'll follow up soon with more info - because you're not going to want to miss out on the great USBs we're passing out and the chance to win a $500 target gift card.  Way cool.
• (high) Speaking of BlogHer, I will be hosting a few time slots within the Serenity Suite.  I will put together a separate post in the very near future telling you exactly when and where you can chill with me there.

I'm bouncing steadily right now as I write this.  Trying to keep a positive perspective and know that when I hit lows, a bounce is upcoming and a high will soon be following.

OK, so I wrote this post 2 years ago: Why I changed my blog from Squarespace to Wordpress.com and BACK again within 24 hours.

It cracks me up that a post about blogging still generates so much traffic here at Mommycosm.  It was atypical both in style and topic for me. 

So, here's the deal.  Every now and again, I get a scathing comment or email about my use of curse words within the post.  Yes, I swore.  Like a sailor.  It happened and I refuse to edit the original post to make it more fluffy and less raw.  It was true to where I was in my mind and as a writer at that exact moment in my life.

About a year ago, I got one of those chastising comments - from an anonymous reader.  Shocker.  I wrote a response: Potty mouth police on the prowl. 

Not sure if the commenter ever received my message...because I had NO contact info for him/her.  That's what happens when you chose to hide in anonymity and leave judgy-Mc-judgy comments without giving a blog writer the ability to respond.

I must say: I might curse sometimes.  Less so these days because I have evolved a bit as a writer and a person, but still.  At least I'm not a coward.  I don't troll around and judge other people anonymously.  I slip on my big girl panties and face confrontation head on.

*ahem*

Anyhow, I won't change the body of that original post that periodically gets the Potty Mouth Police and their panties all in a bother.  I won't.  BUT, I did add a warning at the top of the post that curses are contained within.

Think that will satisfy the Potty Mouth Police?

Does anyone else have an issue with this?  What are your thoughts on cursing?

(OH, and for you Grammar Police: Yes.  I did mean addition and not edition in the title.  Pun on words.  I have to add something to this topic each year it seems.  Ha, ha...get it?)

A friend of mine since 1st grade was killed in a car accident yesterday.

Her 18 year old daughter was driving the car and is in serious condition at the hospital.  Someone cut them off on the highway and she lost control of the vehicle.  They say my friend wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was ejected.  (Read the article)

They were planning to move to Texas today and were SO very excited.  In fact, she updated her facebook status just minutes before the accident to say they were picking up the moving van.  I responded back to tell her to have a safe trip, but I'll never know if she saw it.

I was supposed to go out with her over the weekend to say goodbye.  Life got in the way and I didn't make it out.  I'll always regret that.  Always.

My heart hurts so much I have moments that I can't breathe.  I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that she is gone.  The world has lost a beautiful soul.  She was such a positive person and I have so many great memories of our 30 year friendship.

I am not telling you this for sympathy or to bring you down.  In the spirit of Ndimonbethe from LouCeel: as I go, I am wearing you.  My friend bought into this philosophy as well.  She's one of the only other people I knew from childhood who practices Reiki.  She was one of the most spiritual people I knew.

I wear the many handprints she has left on my life.  So, please hear me when I plead...

Please, please, please, wear your seatbelts.  Pay attention when you're driving.  That means no texting.  Really.  Not even reading incoming texts.  They haven't said the driver was on his cell, it's still under investigation, but one can only assume something distracted him.  If not a distraction, maybe he was in a huge hurry to be somewhere very important.  Do they make a <sarcasm> font yet?  Because seriously?!  What could have been THAT important to justify cutting off someone's car going over 65 miles per hour on the highway?!  Slow down, people and see your surroundings.  Slow down.

Please pray for her daughter.  Her injuries will go far beyond the physical.

And give extra love to everyone who matters to you...because you never know...