I’ve been taking a summer hiatus from blogging, but I had to return today because it’s my birthday! I’ve now spent a full 37 years on this planet. I say this every year, but it remains true: I can’t believe I’m that old. Wasn’t I just 17?
As I write this on the evening of Mother’s Day 2021, I sit perched on a barstool overlooking my messy kitchen and cluttered family room. I am tired but mostly content. I was determined to spend the day enjoying time with my family rather than tidying up and doing laundry or yardwork or the other chores that tend to fill my weekends. I slept in this morning, which was lovely, although it would probably take a solid year of late mornings to put a dent in the sleep deficit I’ve accumulated over the past few years.
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Here’s a weird thing you probably don’t know about me: I always win things. Little things, I mean, like contests and giveaways. If I’m attending an event and they’re giving away door prizes, I’d say there’s about an 85% chance that I’ll be walking away with a door prize. It’s kind of uncanny. I’m lucky. I don’t know if it’s intuition or manifestation or what, but on numerous occasions, I have been certain that my name or number was about to be called as a winner seconds before the words were actually spoken.
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Fifteen years ago this month, I was crouched down on the shiny white tile floor of an empty big box store, stocking shelves for hours on end while listening to the same few CDs on repeat. I’d finished my college course work in December but wouldn’t officially graduate until May. I was back in my hometown and needed to bring in some money while searching for a full-time position, so I took a job setting up a new Target store.
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My preschooler son is obsessed with all things outer space right now. He’s watched dozens of YouTube videos over and over and can name all the planets, dwarf planets, moons, stars, etc. We frequently have conversations about UY Scuti, VY Canis Majoris, Aldebaran, Makemake, Io, the fact that Mercury has no moons and Venus is the hottest planet… I’m continually amazed at how much he knows. He is a little sponge, and at age three, he’s already teaching me so much.
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