On your Mark!

Get Set!

Get Set!

Get Set!

You get the idea.

Who am I? I am a member of Generation X. One-time Army brat. A “PK” I am a hedonist. Lover of pop culture. I live with the hope of trying something new as often as I can. I am many things, but I am most proud of being a wife and mother. I live in the Pacific Northwest with my partner of nearly 25 years and two teenage daughters.

For just about forever, I have enjoyed writing and learning about all sorts of topics. As a kid, besides “Hints From Heloise,” my favorite part of the paper was the public notices section. I would share “fun facts” with my family at dinner about estates, novenas, laundry, and details from the death notices I’d pored over in the back of the paper. I also created my own newspaper in elementary school which I loved publishing and handing out in class.

Flash-forward several years later, and I have been reluctant to write for me. While I have cranked out reliably well-written stuff for work and as a volunteer, my fear of failure and loud feedback from my inner critics have done a good job of drowning me out. As a result, for years, I have avoided using my own voice to write about the things that I care about.

But, I am doing a new thing, armed with rationality and patience now. Rationally, we are all aware of successful blogs. How many unsuccessful blogs come to mind? And how does a blog fail, anyway?

I don’t know. Fortunately, in my imagination, I have a team of very exacting editors that has been watching over my shoulder, eager to review my inaugural post. So, meet the editor I’ll call Huldra; she is the most toxic and nastiest of my inner critics. Here’s what she had to say about this post:

           “There are typos. Are you sure you proofread it carefully?”
           “Shouldn’t you lose a little weight first?”
           “You have a weird southern accent. By the way, you are weird, weird, weird! And goofy!”
           “Gee, you are kind of a know-it-all. And uppity, too.”
           “Excuse me, but the label “dilettante” is never a compliment.”
           “By the way, why aren’t you more successful in life? How does a person with an economics degree end up being an out-of-work paralegal legal assistant?”
          “What if you embarrass your family?”
“Partner? Why don’t you just say whether you have a ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ because. . . what will people think?”
          “Writers need to have discipline and a thick skin. No offense, but you lack both.”
          “A blog, eh? Are you sure that’s a good idea? The only problem with that is, not only could you bring humiliation and shame to yourself, but anything on the internet is a permanent record of. . . Well, I don’t want to see you make a fool of yourself. And your blog is sure to be a permanent record of how terrible and dumb you are.”
          “Your social media posts are all over the place! Seriously. What’s your brand?”
          “You are wasting your time. You are too old for this sort of thing.”
          “You need to work on your proofreading skills.”  
          “And—“

OK! That’s harsh. Enough already!  Huldra, your services are no longer needed. Bye-bye!

And so, the blog begins. Thank goodness for the people outside of my head who have provided encouragement. My family and mentor have been awesome! I plan to share useful information about job searching, wisdom, recipes, and more. Join me in this exploration of what is possible. If YOU have ever had an inner critic, share how you dealt with her/him.

Now, I am ready.

Now, I am set.

Now, I am on my way!