So. Um. Hi! It appears that I didn’t really think through yesterday’s post. I mean, I thought, “This is an important miscarriage of justice that needs to be brought to light, and I have the luxury of readers and so I will ask them to read about it,” when really I should’ve been thinking, “People who are strangers to me will read about this story and then go onto various bulletin boards and claim that I have posted this story to boost my t-shirt sales.” Yes, they’re on to me, folks. I shared that story because I want your money! BUY A SHIRT, DAMMIT!
Ahem.
Look; I very rarely use this space for any sort of activism. When I do, it’s something that’s important to me. If it’s not important to you, that’s okay. Just move on. No need to get your panties in a wad. [Though, for anyone who has questions about yesterday’s post: A bunch of details have been added in the comments by both Hollis (the author) and Kimberly (Hollis’ sister, the defense attorney), including the docket number. Please stop with the “this story can’t be real.”]
So, let’s get back to the sort of controversial, cutting-edge storytelling for which I am best known, shall we?
The kids went back to school today. That means, of course, that I have my obligatory first-day-of-school-shoes picture to share with you.
[GASP! SCANDALOUS! Who does she think she is??]
The mood this morning was a bit nervous, but mostly excited. I am just quietly tearing up over this photo because for the first time EVER, Chickadee is old/cool enough that new shoes on the first day of school would be total blasphemy. No, she’s wearing her beloved sneakers from last year, because it’s humiliating enough to have to wear a (crisp, new) uniform without having to sacrifice her cool shoes. Monkey, on the other hand, was kind enough to let me see his shoes in their original white state, which is handy because I guarantee they’ll be orange by the time he gets home this afternoon. Hooray for Georgia clay!
I got up early and packed lunches and wrote encouraging little notes to tuck inside their bags and even pulled out the silly bands I purchased as a special little present. And then I forgot to give them the silly bands, so I guess it’ll be a “Yay you made it through your first day back, here, have some rubber bands” present, later, instead.
We dropped off boxes of Kleenex and bags of books to donate and everyone went forth to start what will—hopefully!—be a great school year.
(I… hope that story wasn’t too unbelievable for anyone. Counting down to the first accusation that I’m actually a balding man in Tacoma who doesn’t even have kids….)
Oh wow, school. We have three weeks to go for elementary school here and four weeks for preschool. I am so impatient, especially for preschool.
Good luck to C on her first day of middle school. Is the uniform a new thing for her?
I knew you were a man! I’ve been on to you the whole time, young lady! I mean, um, young man!
You know, surprisingly, both my kids came home with clean shoes on Friday. I couldn’t believe it. I’m pretty sure that was a first, considering that their playground is all dirt. Red dirt.
Hope this school year’s going to be better than the last!
Your dad and Otto are going to be VERY shocked when they find out that you are really a man living in Tacoma — seriously, you’ve pulled off that lie for a VERY long time….congrats!!
(And I’m so smart, I knew it all the time, HAHA)
You just stole that picture off some random person on flickr, didn’t you? Well, whoever picked out those adorable Chucks has great taste.
Wah! I’m down to ONE pair of back-to-school-shoe requiring feet! And he wants to buy his own shoes. With his own money. That he made. Himself.
Wait, if last week I was doing the happy dance ’cause my kids are nearly grown and I’ll have sweet, sweet freedom can I wail and thrash and generally create THIS week because my kids are nearly grown and my sweet, sweet babies are gone?
Yes. Yes, I think I can.
Oh, I love back to school new shoe (or “previously loved shoe”) pics. Hope your kids have a fantastic day. And I think silly bandz at the END of the day is WAY better. (Totally something I would do – forgetting to give them to the kids!)
You will be flabbergasted at how quickly new shoes become “Leaving for college today? Well, drive carefully.”
I can’t believe anyone would doubt your motives posting that story. Ridiculous. I hope everything works out for both kids this year at school. Good luck!
Mir… I was called a racist by a reader because one of my posts was about my struggle to fit in with an almost all-black track team in high school. They were a very talented group of girls, all good students as well, and they had a hard time accepting at first that there was a white girl who could almost keep up with them on their team. When they figured out I was a decent person and didn’t give a crap about our “colors”…(and by the way I’m a sort of dark-skinned mutt when it comes to genetics)…. we became good friends and the point in my post was about little things I cherish… like the stick of gum I was given by one of the girls at graduation and how it’s still taped to the inside of my yearbook, just as she had put it there. Yes, I then began getting racist comments and e-mails from this person.
You can please some of the people most of the time…. and I’m sure you know the rest.
Ah well. Enjoy your back-to-school freedom. Hope it’s a much better experience for all of you this year. Ours go back in two weeks. (you remember New England :-)
Patricia. Nothing about Mir surprises me any more.
I am not a blogger, but if there is one thing I have come to realize by reading other people’s blogs and the comments that spew forth it’s this: People are stupid. Really, really stupid.
WHY would you make up a story such as that one and subsequently post it on your site complete with links to the people in question? Surely you have better things to be doing with your life….
Plus, I’m sure that you (of all people) could come up with a much more creative way of selling tee-shirts.
So, you decided not to home school? Are they at a new school? I assume so, after last year’s ordeal. Wherever they are, I hope they have a great first day!
You sell tshirts? Oh look – a sidebar! I just come for the stories and don’t notice anything else.
Why, yes. I *am* a sciencey-type person. How did you guess?
Sorry ’bout that… (*looks guiltily at the floor*). Too many conspiracy theorists in the world. I’m off to buy a t-shirt now. I figure I owe you that much.
Hooray for back to school shoe pics! I used to take a picture of the girls as they stood single file on the front sidewalk waiting for the bus. NO ONE else in the world would enjoy a photo of the rear view of 4 kids, but I could see the change in heights, the creeping up of coolness reflected in their ‘accessories’ and even the loss of riders as driver’s licenses were attained.
So I really beg to differ with the rabble-rousers on this one, a balding man in Tacoma who doesn’t even have kids wouldn’t understand this photo, not even one little bit!
No good deed goes unpunished. Did the story talk about t-shirts? I just saw an unbelievable miscarriage of justice that made me both cry and become furious at the same time; I trust Mir to do due diligence and not post anything she doesn’t know to be true.
Love the shoe pictures, and covert Chickadee’s shoes. Fuschia, black and white always look super cool together!
Mir why does your state celebrate school summer holidays from May to August instead of June to September as we do up here? Which is not to say that one is better than the other. But I can’t separate back-to-school time from fall, which doesn’t really start mentally (although not officially) until after labor day.
woohooo school starts! we start in 2 weeks here in Tx. Uniforms ROCK! we this year do not have them:( we bought a house and moved to a new district….I want uniforms backkkkkkkkkk! Enjoy your first day kids :)
Two new pairs of very white shoes hopped off eagerly to school this morning. I took a picture from the waist up in new school-logo uniform shirts, but no new shoe pic. And you’re right, they’ll be orange by the time I see them this afternoon. Georgia clay must be seen to be believed.
Unfortunately there are a lot of drama-seekers on the interwebz, some who figure out how to profit from making up very sad stories.
I’m a regular on the BabyCenter board (those boards seem to attract a high percentage of drama llamas) it got posted to, and knew instantly that group of women would be particularly skeptical.
Love the shoe pics, and will probably do them when my boys get to school age (which already makes me a little weepy to think of!).
So, I read yesterday’s post and like usual, I’m lost. I guess it pays for being late sometimes. I love the “first day of school” shoe photo. And I hope you are taking it easy with a quiet house today.
Mir, I posted this to my facebook and tweeted it as well. I did for the reasons you stated above: “Look; I very rarely use this space for any sort of activism.”
I hope what little I could do helps this mother ger her babay back.
Melissa
ps just a reader , not a blogger
um that should say “get” and “baby”
and now you know why I don’t blog – my proof reading skillz are the bomb!
The internet is just a giant high school. I’ve said this for a long time.
But dude, you’re really a bald man? Since I’ve seen you in person, I have to say, your wig is EXCELLENT.
My husband thinks the blogs I read are all creepy men with no kids at all!!
If Mir really were a bald man, I would have married her six years ago. *smooches, dear* Don’t let the crazies get you down.
I, for one, am really disillusioned to discover that Mir is a balding, childless man in Tacoma. I always assumed “she” was a genius marketing robot in a lab somewhere. So much for technology.
Well at least if you were in Tacoma I might get to meet you – but if you were a bit ol’ liar I probably wouldn’t want to :P Best of luck with the school year!
so the hair tips were …. FABRICATED?!!!! But, they worked so well. How did you do it old bald one – we of curly hair want to know. WAHHH no school shoes, no school kids this year. Me old now :(
I beleived it. The people who couldn’t beleive it because they couldn’t find it on regular news blogs boggled my mind. ‘Real’ news swings wildly between Britneys and Lindseys which don’t deserve the efforts spent on it, etc and International Disasters which do, but even so, it’s possible to cover them too much at the expense of something nearer which might need coverage, like this. Coverage of this woman’s case in any Ohio news outlet, evidently non-existent (I haven’t searched, just going on what the other commenters said yesterday. But details of (insert celebrity here)’s child custody issues? Reported internationally.
I’m not sure how the story would have inspired anybody to purchase a shirt.
My daughter’s still young enough that she hasn’t caught on to the whole “back to school” shopping yet. I’ll keep her oblivious as long as possible, mwahahahaaa!!
I’m a regular on BBC (BabyCenter).
Since we tend to get people who feed on drama and make up a story to suck us all in and then ask for donations to help them out of the drama…..it’s now on our radar anytime something doesn’t add up to question it. Otherwise we would be gullible suckers all the time.
We question. We dig around for facts. Some of us are even able to admit when we are wrong. All one has to do is go through the site and go back a few days/weeks/months/years and it’s all there how people actually like to come in with a cause and expect $$$ if they hit us where it counts…..our hearts.
It’s not that we are stupid. It’s smart to question everything that is posted that doesn’t add up because we are protecting ourselves from being duped.
Love the Back to school shoes!!!! September is when my kiddos go back. Enjoy your day and don’t let those who questioned that story worry you. We were protecting ourselves and nothing more.
Lately I have been missing all the things about having a little girl. I see that now includes the first day of each school year and the obligitory pictures.
Good gracious! And here I thought the prednisone post was the height of crazy while I was gone! Hope you’re still in one piece by the time I catch up…
For what it’s worth, you handled it all with grace…. more than I would have been able to muster!
And everyone knows that the “Blog With Integrity” button on your sidebar means you routinely make stuff up. I’m with the “people are stupid” people.
Also? That story is horrifying. Jaw-droppingly horrifying.