Last night, I got up at 2:30 am to get a drink of water. For some mysterious reason, I suddenly remembered a gift I’d received more than twenty years ago. A work colleague gave my fiance and me an early wedding present; it was a water decanter with matching glasses that had the words ‘his’ and ‘hers’ etched on them. They must have struck us, in our arrogant twenties, as old-fashioned because we made fun of them and gave them away.
I’ve always been ashamed of that.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched daytime TV, much less a talk show. But this week I’ve been tuning in to one particular show, and I want to encourage you to do the same. Not every day—just next Tuesday, when I’ll appearing on ABC7 Windy City Live to talk about my book.
Seeing the groups of runners along the lake training for next month’s Chicago Marathon has brought back memories of my own brief experience as a marathon runner.
More than a decade ago I took on the challenge of completing the Chicago Marathon, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My IT band began burning before I hit the halfway mark, and the pain had me ready to give up in the last mile. I needed to be screamed at, pushed, and nearly carried in order to cross the finish line.
My ex-husband and his new wife were a picture-perfect couple. So much so that they were photographed for the cover of Crain’s Chicago Business magazine. They were featured in an article about how stepparents are supposedly either relegated to support status or are simply invisible.
But his new wife wasn’t invisible. She posed with him and our three children on the front steps of my house — sorry, now their house— as if she had lived there for more than two months.
👉 Enjoy dedicated writing space just steps from Lake Michigan
👉 Benefit from one-on-one developmental editing sessions