Rita Arens

All Posts

  1. Do You Really Hate Cable/Satellite Enough to Cut the Cord?

    5/3/12 9:05am by Rita Arens
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    Antennae

    The cable-guy service windows, the shoddy satellite reception with a slight westerly breeze, the 107-minute hold times. Ah, cable television. You've been screwing the American people since the eighties. But your reign of terror just might be over. If you love TV but hate cable and satellite, you need to read this.  Read more >

  2. (PICS) Stuffed Animals Call Octomom's Bankruptcy in 2009

    5/1/12 2:20pm by Rita Arens
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    Octopony house

    Octomom Nadya Suleman is back in the news, having declared bankruptcy even after posing nude in order to make money. This was no shocker to me: My daughter's stuffed animals got the skinny two years ago. Here's my pictoral coverage of the 2009 interview between the Octopony Mom and Dr. Phooh, in which they discuss things like income and housing for fourteen children.  Read more >

  3. (EXCERPT) You Have No Idea

    4/30/12 5:59am by Rita Arens
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    You Have No Idea cover

    Dying to know what busy lady Vanessa Williams and her mom wrote about in their new book, BlogHer Book Club pick You Have No Idea? For one thing, nudity. Here's an excerpt to get you started!  Read more >

  4. Student Loans & Politics: Are You Still Paying Yours?

    4/25/12 10:07am by Rita Arens
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    Student Loan

    When my husband and I got married, we married each other and we married each other's debt. I think we had something like $28k in student loans from my husband when we got together, which we started paying off immediately. Those were the good old days before mortgage and a kid, and we were fortunate to have jobs that paid damn close to what we make combined now, eek, ten years later. If we had to pay those loans off now on top of childcare and all the stuff that comes with rising utilities and food costs and house repairs, we would be in serious trouble. Even back then when everything was (relatively speaking) flush, I lived in fear of being in default of those loans, because what would that do to our credit rating and our ability to buy a house or a car or get a job in the future? Messing with your government loans is serious business: the government can seize your tax returns, garnish your wages and more.  Read more >

  5. Five Tips for Breaking Bad Habits

    4/23/12 5:25am by Rita Arens
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    Sidewalk Closed Sign

    Everyone has bad habits, though we vilify some more than others. Whether your habits are endangering your health or just really annoying to other people, I'm here to help!  Read more >

  6. Will Women Still Like You If You Have Money?

    4/21/12 7:55am by Rita Arens
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    Geneen Roth

    Geneen Roth, the author of BlogHer Book Club pick Lost and Found, talks about losing her life savings to Bernie Madoff.  Read more >

  7. Prom Dress Smackdown: Twilight vs. Disney Princesses

    4/17/12 3:25pm by Rita Arens
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    Prom Dress Mashup

    It's prom season. Remember prom? Remember the dresses? Mine for some reason were always covered in sequins, meaning by the end of the night I'd be bleeding from the armpits and sweating like a pig. But, then again, there was no need for structured undergarments. Yay for the early nineties! Kids these days with their princess- and vampire-inspired dresses don't know what they are missing.  Read more >

  8. I Talked to The Bloggess: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened Without a Confidence Wig

    4/17/12 6:22am by Rita Arens
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    Jenny Lawson

    Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) has entertained us for years with her eclectic sense of humor and her commitment to the community via The Traveling Red Dress Project. Her accidental philanthropy shows her heart is bigger than her metal chicken. I was so excited to hear Jenny's memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, is out this month. I've grown to know Jenny over the past few years via blogging, and I've never met anyone quite like her -- raw, loving, brave and crazy like a fox.  Read more >

  9. Why Are Glasses So Expensive?

    4/16/12 7:31am by Rita Arens
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    Glasses

    While reading Geneen Roth's Lost and Found for BlogHer Book Club, I came across a passage in which Geneen, who lost her life savings in the Bernie Madoff scandal, is overcome with desire to buy very expensive eyeglasses: "Three hundred and forty-five dollars," he says. Without the lenses. And with the lenses? He takes out his calculator. With all the bells and whistles -- thin glass, tinting, et cetera -- it comes to close to a thousand dollars. I try not to gasp or appear shocked. So that got me to thinking: Why the heck are eyeglasses made of plastic so dang expensive in the first place?  Read more >

  10. Pet Shopping Extremes and Furbaby Money Tips

    4/11/12 4:23am by Rita Arens
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    Cat Scratch DJ

    I love my cat. And I loved the cat before her, and the cat before HER, and the seventeen cats before her. (I grew up near a farm. They came in packs of three back then.) And I admit, I've been known to spend enough money on my cats to make my mother's mouth fall open. (My cat Sybil needed daily thyroid pills for years.) April 11 is National Pet Day, so I thought we really needed to discuss caring for our furbabies: the good, the bad, and the ridiculously expensive.  Read more >

Rita Arens

Full Name
Rita Arens
Member Since
February 2006
About Me: 

Rita Arens authors Surrender, Dorothy and Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews. She is BlogHer.com's senior editor. 

Her parenting anthology and BlogHer's first book, Sleep is for the Weak was published by Chicago Review Press in September 2008 and won a 2009 gold NAPPA.

She lives with her husband and daughter in Kansas City. She has a BA in communications studies from the University of Iowa and a MA in English/professional writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Follow Rita on Twitter.

Location Tags: 

iowa city,chicago,kansas city

School Tags: 

university of iowa,university of missouri kansas city

About Me Tags: 

health,business,work,parenting,mommyblog,politics,current events

Causes Tags: 

healthcare,environment,childcare

 

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