Thank you, Dooce

While my situation last week bore no resemblance to Heather Armstrong's (like, I didn't get to go to the White House and then have people crap all over me for it), I totally felt it when she wrote these lines last week:

Some of you, and you know exactly who you are, you can go right ahead and suck it.

I'm a regular Dooce reader, even though I am not a mom and appear to be less cool than the entire Armstrong family, I was totally on board with her standing up to the shit she got for being selected to attend the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility*.  She made some excellent points in her post "Because it needs to be said," especially when she pointed out the fact that most people - naysayers and supporters alike - wouldn't have known about the Forum if she hadn't announced she was going.  AND it was on a topic that is both interesting and important for a lot of people.  AND I'm glad she drew my attention to it so that I could watch some of the Forum in my office and see that my government actually has an interest in discussing how a lot of people (particularly women) work and live in this country.  Especially since this grad school business prompts a lot of inner wrangling about how to balance work and life both now and in the future.  For a lot of people, the fact that there's a larger conversation going on about this type of issue in our government should be the thing to take note of.  Getting pissy over who actually got invited though, that's just silly.  Because really, a successful small business owner who basically leads her field is going to get invited to the White House before the rest of us slobs any day.  And she seems to know what she's talking about, so I'm good.

And while she'll probably never see this, I'm glad that Heather Armstrong shares her cool adventures, her life, and her humor with the rest of us hanging around the internet.  And I, too, would like to sit down and have a beer or four with her, especially because she would probably be a great help when I need to someone to peer edit my screeds in which I tell others to suck it.



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* And it was an actual government forum, not a fancy code name for Dooce Day at the White House.  It seems Heather Armstrong had to work rather than shop with Michelle, hang out in sweatpants in the Oval Office and shoot the shit with the President, and test drive Marine One to see if she wanted it for her personal use.  It also appears that she wasn't the only person there, but I guess that might be hard to see with tunnel vision.