Let's Talk About Me

I had no patience with the children's antics tonight, and while I would like to turn to a glass of wine for solace, the bottle is dry. So, here I am hunkered over my laptop instead. Writing is my drug of choice and thankfully I don't have to put on a bra to go out to get it.

But, unfortunately, my bottle is also dry and I need to borrow a blog topic. This one is from Noble Savage: visit her - she's a working/writing mother who is intelligent, opinionated, and funny.

Here goes...

15 years ago today I would have been:

• Finishing up my thesis for my History Honors Degree (comparing the fashions of Renaissance and Victorian Europe... don't ask when I thought I would use that in real life.)
• Living at home.
• Driving around in a 1984 Subaru (the first car I purchased with my own money) with the license plate "Yeovil."
  

10 years ago today I would have been:

• Suffering through the death throes of a seriously wounded relationship.
• Living in a large house with two exotic dancers (not by choice).
• Working in the Trust Department of a bank but actively searching for something less boooorING.
  

5 years ago today I would have been:

• Fighting off fire ants and casserole-bearing church ladies in Mississippi after moving there a month earlier.
• Loving being a stay-at-home mom to 15-month Little Lady after leaving the Youth Orchestra where I had worked as Marketing Assistant for the last five years.
• Wondering what the hell I was doing 1,500 miles away from my parents and four seasons.
  

1 year ago today I would have been:

• Celebrating the first anniversary of being back in Vermont and two months in our own home.
• Walking from home to the coffee shop, library, book store, and park.
  
• Finishing a course in Children's Literature.
• Beginning a instructor-certification course in Journal-Writing.
• Laying out a program for a local theatre group.
  
• Starting Tator in playschool for two mornings a week so I could write...(ha! laundry had a way of ruining that plan.)
• In disbelief that Little Lady was finishing pre-school and headed to Kindergarten in a few months.
  

This year I am:

• A certified instructor of Journal to the Self through the Center for Journal Therapy.
• A published writer... finally!
  
• Working part-time in a 45-female-only gossip tank (there are two males but they sit there quietly enduring the catty-ness) and wondering every day if I'm crazy not to leave well enough alone.
• Writing whenever, whatever I can and trying to make (and stick to) writing goals.
• Attempting to overcome my "impostor syndrome" and schedule journal-writing workshops.
  

Today I:

• Actually got up early enough to write in my journal before the kids woke up.
• Walked to work.
• Endured another (extra) gossipy-catty-entitled-employee day at work (and I admit I was part of it).
• Did a Walmart diaper run (why are boys so hard to potty-train?).
• Talked to/got emails from three people interested in my workshop.
• Am watching American Idol (Adam, that should have been you!).
  

Next year I hope:

• Not to be working outside the home.
  
• To have a regularly-scheduled workshops and plenty of word-of-mouth advertising.
• To be more comfortable with submitting essays and queries.
• To have time to write (and actually using it to write).
• To have more readers on my blog (and maybe making money off it).
  
• That Hubby is settled in a job he really loves (and that we don't have to move because of it).
• To be balancing motherhood and me-hood better than I am now.
• Have the money to re-do our kitchen, build a sunroom, and fix up the "guest house" (converted garage) to make it "The Writer's Retreat" (and pigs might fly).
  

In five years I hope:

• To be Joanna: Freelance Writer and Certified Journal Therapist.
• To have a real group of friends.
• To be a (contributing) part of this community.
• That both kids are happy in school (but not participating in every extra-curricular activity).
• That I don't have three children.
• That I'm aging graciously and that my 40s are the new... ME!