Other Jen wrote back

A conversation with a friend this weekend reminded me that I never did post an update here about the Other Jen and Arlo.

You may remember that I experienced a bit of an identity crisis when I discovered that there was another woman named Jen out there (Providence, R.I., to be precise) whose toddler/preschool son was named Arlo. It threw me for a loop. I agonized over whether I should contact Other Jen, or if that would just be weird.

Well, of course I e-mailed her.

Here's what I got back:

Hello Other
Jen!

Thanks for taking the time to write. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised, having the Most Popular Girl Name of 1960-whatever to 1970-whatever with sons with an Up-n-coming Boy Name (I know of at least 10 Arlos under 8yrs old). Thank GOODNESS our husbands have different names, or that would be really weird. But for what it's worth, my husband goes to Iowa frequently because his business partner is in Ames.

As for me, I am a designer and an author of web design books for O'Reilly Media. Arlo goes to daycare 30 hours a week which is when I get to work and do everything else in my life that isn't Mommying. Oh, and if you look closely, you'll see that jenville.com (est. 2001) has been updated, like, 4 times since Arlo was born. I'm hoping to do better next year when I'm done with all this book writing! Never enough time.

It's no surprise that there's a link to my site from Mightygirl and Dooce since they are both friends of mine (Maggie is one of my dearests; I can't wait for her to be a Mom too). It's funny all the people the web site (and Liam's videos in particular) have caused me to cross paths with. I'm sorry that I don't have a Uncle Liam DVD to spare, but all of the videos on it are available on Liam's podcast, Lynchland. Go to Apple iTunes Store and search the podcasts section, or go to the link at www.liamlynch.net.

The kid's videos are sprinkled in between all the other weirdness that my brother creates.

Take good care of yourself and little Arlo!

Warmest
regards,
jennifer

So there you go. Other Jen apparently doesn't engage in self-indulgent dramatics the way that I do. I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback by her nonchalance and steadfast refusal to be surprised. I mean, her response (as you can see) is warm and friendly, genial as all get out, but for Chrissake, woman, freak out a little. Right?

No, probably not. That's probably just me. It was very nice of Other Jen to write back, and I do appreciate that she didn't treat me like an idiot or a freak or a stalker. I am none of those things. Except maybe all of those things, each on its own separate occasion. But I digress.

Anyway. I want to know what kind of strange hippie artsy-fartsy outpost Providence is, with all those little Arlos running around.