Ten Reasons I Heart My Book Club

My favorite night of the month is book club night. I love my book club. We’ve been together for seven years and in all of that time, I’ve missed maybe two meetings. I make it a priority – it is important that I go. My husband understands that and makes sure to be home early so I can make it. I’ve been in other book clubs, but there is something about this one that just clicks.

I’ve been wanting to write about this amazing group for a while, so today, I give you, the top 10 reasons I love my book club:

10. We have history: This book club has been together for seven years. It has changed over time, with members moving to Colorado, Chicago and even Switzerland. New members have taken their place. But a core group of us has been here a long time, and with any group with some history gives the group an ease and comfort that I love.

9. We are organized: We have an Yahoo! group. We have guidelines (no books only available in hardcover, all books have to be new to everyone in the group, the host suggests the next book), but have broken all the rules at one time or another. This keeps things running smoothly, but isn’t oppressive or annoying.

8. We are diverse: Although every member of the group knew either me or my BFF before joining, we have a pretty diverse group of women. Some work, some are stay at home moms; some of us have kids, some don’t; some are married, some are single, and one might as well be married to her boyfriend of like 17 years but for some reason is not; some are vegetarians; one rides a Harley; our pets include cats, dogs, fish, rabbits and a bird who has provided quite a bit of drama over the years.

7. We laugh: As adults it seems we don’t laugh as much, or at least with as much gusto, as we did we were kids. But there have been times in book club when we’ve lost it. I will never forget the story, told on one occasion when we were out at a restaurant, about one member using an, ahem, “marital aid” to help induce labor. There is nothing a good laugh cannot fix.

6. Nothing is off limits: See number 7. We talk about everything and anything. Sometimes we even talk about the book we read.

5. We eat: We are not officially a food or cooking club, but most of us really like to cook, or at least eat. A few of our members are vegetarians, so for me (a meat-eater) it is an opportunity to try out a recipe I might not otherwise try. Sure, we’ve had a few pizza deliveries, and that’s been good too.

4. We drink: See number 7. There is nothing better than walking into a room where the first thing said to you is “red or white?”

3. We are not about autism: I have a stack of books about autism. Any time I am not spending with an autistic child I could spend reading about other autistic children, and research on autism, and therapies for autism. But book club gives me a reason to read something else, and book club meetings give me a chance to talk about something else. Sure, it comes up, but it isn’t what book club is about and that break is worth everything.

2. We see each other outside of book club: I worked with a few of the book club members at previous jobs. Others are friends I met through moms groups. Book club has been a way for me to stay connected with some of my favorite people who I might otherwise not get many opportunities to see. And by staying connected, we’ve also made plans to see movies, go to brunch, and get our kids together, much needed breaks in between book club meetings!

1. We sometimes read the book: We want to be a committed book club. Really, we do. We all try to read the books and talk about them. Some books provide better discussions than others. But even if someone doesn’t read the book, she comes to book club anyway. Because for us, book club is more than just a book club. It’s about friends. (And wine.)

I wrote this post in list form, as task #2 for the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. It gave me an excuse to write a post I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Thanks, girls! See you Thursday :)

A little pitchy today, Dawg

Because I clearly don’t have enough going on in my life right now, I decided to take on yet another challenge. This one is about this blog and is called 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I’m doing this as a part of a community called SITS Girls. Each day, we have a new challenge to improve our blog. On the days that it seems relevant, I’ll write about our task for the day.
Task #1: Write your elevator pitch.
An elevator pitch is commonly used in business as a way to quickly convey your company’s purpose. If you ran into your ideal investor in an elevator, what would you say about your company to get her interested in you? You can’t tell her everything she needs to know, but you must tell her enough to make her want to learn more.
From a blog perspective, having an elevator pitch can help you write your tag line, your about page and pitch to potential promoters, whether they are other bloggers, media sources or advertisers. It is also a way to make sure your blog stays on target. In other words, if you write a food blog, your readers probably don’t care about your kid’s swimming lesson unless you are talking about the snacks you gave them after.
I’ve never intended to use this blog as a way to make money. Initially, it was intended to be simply a way to tell my friends and family about Moe’s progress without having to answer the same questions over and over. It quickly became more than that. It is a safe place for me to express my feelings, a process that has been proven to be quite therapeutic. It allows me to connect with other parents of special needs kids, mostly by inspiring me to find other bloggers going through similar experiences. I hope to share whatever information I pick up from my own experiences, as well as from those who have already been there.
Here is what I came up with:

Anybody Want A Peanut? is a portrait of my life raising a preschooler on the autism spectrum, including day to day challenges, navigating early intervention and the school system, and all of the feelings, from the heartbreaking to the hilarious, that go along with it.

What do you think, dear readers? Does that accurately reflect what this blog means to you?