Today is my Ollie’s birthday. This got me to thinking about how much my life has changed since he burst onto the scene 11 years ago. Well, more accurately he strolled onto the scene after hours and hours of agony, but who remembers or cares about labor room details. Anyway, please enjoy this list of 11 reasons why Ollie makes me better.
A few weeks ago I was rejected for a position I really wanted. I wrote about it at length here. Details are not important or interesting enough to go into here, but I felt the sting of this rejection again this evening. And since this happened while I’m watching the World Series, I’ll quote the great Yogi Berra to describe how this feels, “It’s deja vu all over again.”
Since I started Midlife Pickle a little over 6 months ago, I’ve had almost exclusively positive comments from readers. That was until last Wednesday when I posted a blog entitled “Where Were the Heroines” exploring the revelation that nearly all of the literature I read during my 12 years of public school education had male protagonists. I shared links to this piece on my social media accounts, just as I do with posts I think may be of interest.
As for describing myself in five words, I found myself overthinking far more than is healthy. Plus, I got to thinking how I would react to that question under pressure and decided it’s a good think I’m not actively interviewing for jobs. But for shits and giggles, I decided to think this through
When I first started Midlife Pickle I spent some time searching for and making silly memes about midlife. While I realize most of these are cliche and groan-worthy, my dorky sense of humor can’t help but laugh.
I spent the evening at Sherlock’s Escape Room with some of my St. Mary friends. I got to know these women through a church retreat that then led to a year long exploration of faith and Christian community. The experience was a big commitment, but definitely worth the time and effort. I’m not sure I grew my faith as much as I wanted, but the connection I made with the group is undeniable.
Birthday months are for reflection and goal setting so I started October off with a list of three goals, all of which are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). As usual, I bit off a bit more than I can chew, mostly because I ignored the fact that I’d also be on vacation one week out of this month. To top it off, I failed to leave wiggle room for those times when life gets in the way.
It occured to me that in all 12 years of my public school education I was only required to read two books that had female protagonist—To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlet Letter. Thank goodness for Scout and Hester or I would have assumed women did nothing noteworthy. On second thought, TKAM is really about Atticus Finch and Hester Prynne served as a cautionary tale of what would happen to young ladies who dared to step out of line or make a mistake.
I recently learned that my maternal great-grandmothers attended game four of the 1961 World Series together. Grandma Marguerite Heitker and Grandma Frieda Wolfzhorn shared German heritage, but that was about then end of their similarities. Learning they went to a baseball game together, much less a World Series game, is beyond intriguing.
It’s been one of those days where self doubt has crept into my internal dialogue. Coming back from vacation means I feel a bit out of the loop, out of sorts and out of practice. I could have given myself a little slack, but that’s just not how I roll.
I’ve always enjoyed Mondays. Even when I worked at a job I wasn’t crazy about, Monday seemed like a new beginning—another opportunity to build bridges, solve problems and get it right. Sure, this was usually delusional and by Wednesday afternoon I was beaten down and dragging ass, but I started out the week with promise and optimism.
Other than a 10am yoga class, I haven’t left my house and other than cooking some tuna noodle casserole, I’ve been essentially useless all day. By the way, I hadn’t had tuna noodle in like 3 years and only made it at Jason’t request, but it was really quite a delicious comfort food perfect for a lazy day. I’m sure the carb and at overload isn’t helping my energy levels.
