I Should Make Some New Goals.

I just guest posted on Design Mom thanks to the mysterious and generous Gabby. I was gone to San Diego for 24 hours to return to my loving, grateful family (One point for mysterious: Who leaves for a 24 hour trip?! ME!) Coincidentally, the first thing sweet little Margaret said to me when I arrived home was “Get me a drink of water.” (One point for not mysterious: Who lives their life in constant fear of the unrelenting demands of a 3 year-old?! ME!)

Turns out, and I know this will be A BIG SURPRISE TO MOST OF YOU: I’m not as mysterious as I sometimes think I am. My fallback to making dumb jokes about potty training and “woo-whooing” when someone takes my picture in a convertible should have been my first clue, but I’ve always been a bit of a late bloomer.

Here is a peek into my mind as I assessed how well I was keeping up on my goal of being more mysterious:

Mysterious

1. Using my maiden name when traveling (Valentine sounds so international!)

2. Driving in a Murano Crosscabriolet (not yet released to the public!)

3. Walking through the hotel room to my room (I could be anyone!)

4. Traveling by myself (no talking down a toddler from having a meltdown in public--surprisingly refreshing!)

5. Representing Design Mom as a freelance writer (Time Magazine's Top 50 Blogs!)

6. Name dropping famous people I know (Ever heard of a little band called. . . Maroon5? )

Not Mysterious

1. Referring to myself as a Mommy blogger.

2. When answering the question, “How many kids do you have?” at dinner, I took a big bite of roll, not anticipating it being so hard, and quickly found I would have to gnaw it like a hungry dog devouring a bone and simultaneously say, “Oh, I have 5 kids.”

3. Taking out my crappy camera from Target to photograph the car when everyone else has expensive Cannon's with fancy zoom lenses.

4. Not tweeting during conversations, or ever, and asking someone what they were they were tweeting about (lame).

5. Making a joke about breast pumps and poo during dinner in a self-deprecating way (does it count if they got a good laugh?)

6. Not knowing how to turn on the Murano (new cars have buttons, people! Learn from me!) or why the car when on, won't go (emergency brake, Einstein).


I was driving partners with a Christina from Mommy Loves Coffee and she is super cool.


I took this picture (with my dumb camera) to remember that cool tree on the Nissan Design property. The whole Design Center was so inspiring, with cool architecture and hipsters walking in and out.


This is the show car that eventually turned into the Nissan Quest. The inside of this car was incredible, with orange Jetson-like interior seats and no trunk which makes a larger interior. If it were on sale like this, I'd buy it tomorrow.

(*I received flight, hotel, and food from Nissan, just so you know. They didn't tell me what to write, but they were really nice to me and let me in the lobby, at least, of their Design Center. )