“Can I ask you a question, Paula?” “Shoot.” “Why don’t you guys have kids yet?” I took a deep breath and rolled my eyes inside my head when yet another person asked me the question I’ve been asked for years now, by many different people. Including strangers. A few years ago, my mother in law ran into an old family friend. They got to talking when she finally asked if my husband and I were still dating. Once my mother in…
It’s okay to not be okay Rough patch, a bad day, a major setback. Sometimes, it seems like one thing goes wrong after another. And another, and another. Sometimes an unexpected challenge or an obstacle might come your way, and you find yourself stressing out, worrying and not knowing what to do. And, some days, you just have nothing. Zero motivation, no creativity. All of a sudden, you’re being plagued with self-doubt. You think you have to be strong all the time.…
I love spending time alone. As long as it doesn’t involve me leaving my house. Whenever Mark wants to go somewhere where I know we can expect crowds I always tell him: “but… but there are people there and I’ll have to interact and stuff“. It’s become somewhat of a running joke in my family. We’d go out to dinner and someone will suddenly look at me and say “Paula! I see people!” So yeah, I’m a bit (or a…
“Idiot! What is wrong with you?!” That was the first thing that I heard myself say when I missed a turn. I was going home after running some errands. Since I was in an unfamiliar area, I turned my GPS on. GPS that hasn’t been updated since I bought my car. The rain was pouring down hard, it was right around school-traffic time and I could barely see where I was going (not that it mattered since I didn’t actually know where I…
I was sitting in a chair, my back facing a huge mirror in my grandmother’s closet. My aunt, who is really more like a sister since there’s a small age difference between us, asked me if I wanted to put on some makeup. I was just staring at her while she layered her lashes with endless coats of mascara. She sat me down on a chair, curled my lashes, added some mascara and a red lipstick, teased my hair and said “what do you think?”…