LJ Idol: Week 0 - Introduction

If this introduction was the opening scene of a movie, it would be shot from the driver’s POV of a small orange SUV, navigating the beautiful tree-lined streets of Tallahassee. A news story would come on NPR that was so annoying that the driver would fire up some music and They Might Be Giants would rise behind the scenery and the driver talking to themself.

“Begin again, begin again. . .

“Put yourself on the docket. Get ready to go. Got a brand new day planner, still snug in the wrapper, and the daily to do list, still white as the snow. . .”

“Oooh, okay, so first meeting of the day is that CLE about International Environmental Law and the Strait of Hormuz. . . Plus, phew, what else are we looking at?”

“Okay,” I promised myself this morning, “This is gonna be another weird day, but after today, I’m buckling down. I’m gonna get into a good autumn pattern! Less weird days, more good rhythms.” And then I promptly called my husband, who I’d just left at home for the day, and tried to give him some strategies to make it a positively normal day at home on his end. I’m pushing him now, even though he has a lot on his plate today and no one to help him stay on target. He’s been fighting Parkinson’s disease for at least 20 years now. So staying on target can be a valiant battle. And yep, I’m starting the day with a conversation we should have had over the long weekend. But cest la vie. So it goes.

The morning at the start of the week. Such a hopeful time. Maybe not a time of the most realism. But what can you do? Plus it’s the week after the Labor Day holiday and I’m just returning from a fairly epic short vacation. No better time for reevaluation and reset. Or some sort of attempt thereof.

Man, I probably should have just written a vacay report here, but the vacay report would have been even more navel-gazey than this because I spent a lot of my time out west solo hiking. I digress again.

You guys, this is a particularly liminal year. I mean, I really am about to dive off a cliff of change- arguably, in some ways, like never before. I think it’s going to be okay. I mean, I have been a strong swimmer for longer than I can remember. But it’s also gonna be wild. It’s gonna be adventurous. Even if it is really completely mundane and a stage that all families go through.

It’s not enough that the world is changing all around us- that we are in an El Niño that is likely to break records. Not enough that my parents are aging. They are only about 100 miles away from me most days, but tied so tightly to my heart. I want to do more to help them. I also want to give back to my old hometown. There is so much that needs doing. My home in Tallahassee needs work. Always. And there are community needs all around me here, too.

It is not enough that my stalwart strong body is beginning to feel pretty darn different than it did 20 years ago and have different hormonal flows.

No, in additional to all of that; Roger and I- a unit of two that still feels, in many ways, like it only just got started a couple of years ago- have also got to take the two best things that we have contributed to in the intervening 18 years, and eject them into this crazy world like hot lava from an erupting volcano, come the end of spring.

I mean, maybe that’s not the best metaphor. Hopefully our children won’t carve paths of molten destruction as they slide down the hillsides of our lives together. And, of course we will still be there for them. They’ll always have a home with us. But it is also certainly impossible to ignore that our twins- now Seniors in high school, have outgrown the nest. I can say that, yes, I think that as of September 8, 2026, it is probably still possible to finish raising a couple of kids in a 1954 3:1 in the middle of Tallahassee. But maybe only with the help of a pretty massive community and lot of supplemental camping trips.

So, yeah, introduction. I think this is what you’re going to get. I’m a mom on the precipice. Also still a decent rock climber, so the lack of issue with exposure learned there comes in handy for parenting. And I’m also still a full time lawyer for the state, working on state lands issues in arguably the most interesting state in the union.

As always, I want to use idol to stretch my fiction muscles. But family life makes me wanna journal too, and it can be easier for me to find inspiration for journal-style stuff here when I get in a time pinch, which is pretty much always.

So, buckle up LJ Idol friends! And I will try not to bore you. It should definitely be an interesting season.