The nice thing about my daughter telling me that I am a very boring person is the way the way that my friends have rallied around me in the aftermath.

“Boring?” one asked. “There are a lot of things I can call you, but not boring.”

“OMG, you are the least boring person ever!” Another one told me. “Of all the things she could have said about you.”

It felt good to have the people I cared about come to my defense.

Until I started to think about what they were saying.

And question them about it.

“So, when you said that there were a lot of things you could call me, what exactly did you mean?” I asked, poised to take notes. Because I’m always looking for synonyms for gorgeous, generous, so wise for your age and whole body hangs off your cheekbones.

“Oh you know, nuts, controlling, insane– that kind of thing,” one soul mate offered.

“Yeah, close-minded, vapid, selfish and lazy,” another one volunteered.

“What?” I was stunned, although not quite into silence. “MOI?”

There was an uncomfortable silence.

“Well, obviously we don’t think that about you,” they told me in what appeared to be a carefully rehearsed monologue delivered by two people. “But that’s the kind of crazy thing that a teenager may have said.”

“Oh,” a tear rolled down my perfectly sculpted cheekbone.

They looked uncomfortable.

And a little guilty.

“But not boring!” they offered. “Yes, definitely not boring!”

I’m so lucky to have such great friends.

But not as lucky as they are to have me.

I interrupt a week of whining about how my life is so hard, what with my son’s clashing wardrobe choices and my daughter not phoning me and the croissants jumping into my mouth whenever I stroll by (that post is still in drafts) to rant a little bit about a group of assholes, One Million Moms, who were protesting JC Penney’s decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson.

Because Ellen is *gasp* gay and wants to make everyone in American gay and burn a few Bibles while she’s at it. And maybe the American flag too, but only if being gay doesn’t take up all her free time. It’s hard to juggle so many things at once, you know.

So I usually ignore shit like this because there are many insane people in the world and I can’t spend my croissant-eating time arguing with them all, but this week, Ellen DeGeneres called them out on their bullshit, and well, I love Ellen. Check it out if you missed it.

The great news is that JC Penney is standing by their decision to hire Ellen and I swear, I now think JC Penney is run by geniuses because that decision makes me want to shop at JC Penney and I didn’t even know that JC Penney still existed in post- 1970s America. And then people that I adore, Sweetney and Doug organized a Shop-In at JC Penney’s this Sunday, February 12th, and OMG, what a great idea. You can even buy a Valentine’s Day gift there for me if you like.

So please help spread the word!

Facebook page.

More info at Sweetney’s site.

Oh and another thing. You may know that this month I’m one of the community leaders at Million Moms Challenge–an organization formed to promote healthy mothers and babies around the world. Totally and completely unrelated to One Million Moms, but they’re getting slammed in the confusion. I’ve tried to convince them to change their organization name to Marinka and 999,999 Other Moms, but it’s not catching on. Yet.

So if you have an extra second, please stop by to support them, and like their Facebook page.

Thank you.