dos-si-er :
noun a collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject.

In teaming up with this incredibly inspiring group of youthful minded smarty pants, (a.k.a my Looking Glass Lane collaborators) we all had to create our own dossiers to bring with us to LGL. What ensued was outroaring laughter.
Now on Twitter and Facebook, I am seeing this Dossier movement take flight! It was a little dose of what we aim to illicit from our friends or readers at The Lane...coercion toward fun self-discovery. Let's face it...disclosure can be fun and inspiring. I am amazed at the incredibly souls who've tapped into the Dossier fun: (more arrive every day!)

Steph
April
Christeen
Jenn
John
Nakia
Keith

Here's where it started...
Suzanne "terra firma esoteric"
Morgan "Mega Glama Romantic"
Jen "ballsy hooligan"
Ria "sexy tech"

Enough ado. Here's mine...

Leigh

Looking Glass Powers:
Ability to hop up the average photo with a wave of a magic wand (a.k.a. Photoshop).
Ability to razzle dazzle with wordy words.
Ability to go invisible for a moment when the housework is looking for her.
Ability to conjure the inner child, rockstar, superhero, and spy in others in the Twitterverse.

Dress-up Closet:
Banana Republic, Chuck Taylors, Michael Starr T's, snug jeans. At least one stunningly simple black dress. And necklaces. Lots of pretty necklaces. OPI nail polish, preferably not self-applied.

Disguise:
SuperProductivity Cape. English school teacher armed with Burberry specs, tight skirt, and a ruler.

Go-To Gadget:
Nikon D300, iPod (ruined in washer) and the BlackBerry. All should be waterproof.

Vice:
Speeding and propensity for overindulgence. But never both at once!

Magic Potion:
Elixirs of choice include cold beer almost any flava and Pinot Noir. You won't catch her dead with a girly vodka drink. Followed by H2O in copious amounts.

Battery Recharge Hub (other than Looking Glass Lane, of course)
Augusta National Golf Course, the city of New Orleans or the back of the Harley Davidson.

Bratty Spoilers:
The first tee with a wide green fairway. When that doesn't fix her, feed her pizza and 23 oz of beer.

Owner's Manual:
Where the Wild Things Are
The complete works of William Shakespeare
Tweetdeck
The Joy of Cooking (ROTFL, just seeing if you're paying attention)

Weapon:
A lasso to gain control, her 3-iron with graphite stiff shaft, the unsuspecting somersault.

Nemisis:
Alter Ego
Bacon
Focus
High drama

How she gets to the Lane:
Rapidly and four-wheeling with a top-down Jeep. Perhaps in a bikini depending on weather conditions...

Secret Ambitions:
Spyhood

This is the part where I dare you, double dare you, to create your own personal dossier and share it with us. Here's mine:

How'd the dossier craze come about?
On the heels of our Bad Mother social networking event with author Ayelet Waldman, I've linked arms with four supergirl, lively hooligan bloggers from Twitter @MissIve @RiaSharon @ZenMommy @modernsinglemom to shake things up a bit! We have set a sight in motion called Looking Glass Lane or @LookingGlassLN that is duofold full blown playtime fun and savvy viral marketing. You may have seen us using #LookingGlass in tweets for reference. We feel that just because you're "all growed up" doesn't mean that playtime is over. While we envision a website "house" that you can visit for big kid Adventures in Wonderland, self-discovery, enlightening book clubs, worldly diversions, fashion and style sizzle.

Under construction soon, the site will be part swanky lounge, part bean bag chair intimate chats, part enrapture. We invite you and you inner six-year-old! Make sure you sign our guest book to be kept aware of exciting new developments on Looking Glass Lane. Cool new stuff like a working web site, delicious new capers, exciting marketing partners. Next we engage you, learn about you, and award & embellish you. (YAY!) Our next big adventure is being schemed...right now.

Hugest thanks to Rajesh Pancholi of R27 CreativeLab ( @r27 ) for his fabulous creativity and kindness on this project.

Perhaps it's some strange boomerang mommy karma that gives me the opportunity to read Ayelet Waldman's socially charged and brutally honest book Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, before it officially hits bookstores this Tuesday, May 5th. This new book grew wings from her highly controversial New York Times essay, Motherlove which met caustic disapproval of the stoic moms hellbent on the idealism of being a perfect mom.

Follow this link to Join us MONDAY, MAY 11th at 12 noon EST:  

Ustream Live Broadcast

For those of you who know me, you've seen my candid, humorous, heartfelt illumination of my being a working mother. It's messy, let me assure you. My two year old just told me to "focus Mommy." In a social networking collaboration, I am linking arms with four other dynamite mothers who share my quest to be a good mother and an acceptance that we'll will never be on the public podium of Perfect Mom. We are a bevy of bold bloggers who want to conjure a conversation with you other mothers and fathers on the subject of parenting. Here's the important mommy topic d'jour.

When reading this passage from this insightful, bittingly funny book about the scrutiny of societal pressure on flawed moms like myself, I heard my voice in Ayelet's:

"I on the other hand, was supposed to be doing this good mother thing, this care-taking thing, this Gymboree and Music together and baby massage thing, but unlike my husband, filling my traditional domestic role didn't make me happy. It didn't feel like I had come into some deeper understanding of what it meant to be a woman and a mother. It just felt like I'd gone astray, that I was stuck in a hole I had dug for myself, a hole I was not supposed to want to escape. And complicating all this was the fact that I loved these children so much. "

Upending the lofty career aspirations of women like me in favor for a diaper-filled, domestic day in stay-at-home motherhood, seems shear madness. When my daughter was born and my (now ex) husband insisted that I opt to stay home, I felt up to the task after the thrill-of-the-kill highs of Sales & Marketing. I approached momness as I do everything, certain that I’d be successful. Little did I know that while I adore my children and earnestly try to be the attentive female pillar my mother was, I would fall short. Daily.

Even as a messy ponytailed youth, I wasn't ever found playing with dolls aping motherhood like my little sister. I was controlling the wind from a rock or unearthing nightcrawlers for an early morning fishing adventure with my brother. Of course, I wanted to have children and to share my life with them. But, the not at the sacrifice of all the other parts of me.

I contemplated the notion of Good Mother. Good Moms were even-tempered, child worshiping, healthy lunch bag carrying beings with a finely tuned calendar full of family planned activities, soccer games, school plays. I found myself like an actress, a Bad Mother in costume, donning the role everyone expected of me. A misfit.

Good mothers simply DO NOT let time slip away from them while working, look down and realize that they have missed picking up their kindergartner at the bus stop and would receive a call from the school transportation department who was holding a beautiful daughter hostage. Wiping away mascara, I faced the disapproving looks of school staff mothers who would have me wear a scarlet letter "M" for gross maternal negligence. They frowned at me.

Reading Ayelet's book made me open raw wounds of how I perceive myself as loving but impostor mother in relation to the really good moms out that abound. It made me commiserate with the author about the juggling that is required of working moms and gave me comfort that I am not alone in self-scrutinizing my maternal role. Bad Mother made me understand myself and forgive myself for my shortcomings. Even, laugh about them.

In an act of solidarity I've joined these the bright, brave bloggers:

Jen Wright, (@MissIve)

Ria Sharon (@riasharon)

Suzanne Tucker (@ZenMommy)

Morgan Siler (@modernsinglemom)

Yours truly (@fleurdeleigh)

Check out Suzanne Tucker's video on

BADMOTHER: How to Stop “Should-ing” on Yourself!@#

We are taking Badmotherhood viral by discussing this powerful book, its impact on us, and we are engaging with you about the honesty of motherhood, or in my case motherhoodlam. I plan to share my inner tug-a-war, selfishness and maternal inadequacies with you. And, here's the fun part you play. In return, please make my day by sharing your voice with us. For all you Twitter folks, join us on Twitter by including the hashtag #badmother in your tweet. Check out the live feed here .

We are going live in a no holds barred discussion the day before the book hits the shelves. The brave author/poster child for Bad Mothering, Ayelet Waldman, is joining us on Monday, May 11 th, Noon EST.

We want you to lend your voice, to pop in here and take part. We welcome an genuinely honest conversation with you. And since you tend to forget things like school lunches, don't worry. Sign up below and we'll remind you that day of our sit in chat with Ayelet. We will even send you a copy of the first chapter of Bad Mother so you can express your thoughts of this great piece of stirring writing.

Step 1: Sign up below to be emailed a free first chapter of Ayelet Waldman's Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace before it is available in print.

Step 2: Have a heart to heart with your inner mother and come discuss it with us on Twitter, in our blog comment sections, on Facebook in our Bad Mother online bookclub. We strive to give every mother, good, bad or otherwise a healthy forum.

Step 3: Plan to join us for the live chat with AYELET as her honest witty self. We will post the live stream here!!!