XXXXX,
Tonight I am peeling and chopping and dicing and doing basic food prep so that I have a head start on cooking for tomorrow. It's hard to get all the food done with the baby all over eating peels off the floor and unpacking groceries and trying to crawl up the stairs and ripping into the garbage bag that's waiting for me to put my boots on to go tramping through the snow in the backyard to the alley etc...
So - I'm standing there in the kitchen and about five different notes to you compose themselves in my head. Here are some beginnings - you pick the best:
1: If I could have seen myself now five years ago, I would be aghast at just how conventional I turned out. And how much I like it. Here I am cooking, raising a kid, ironing my husband's shirts, living in the suburbs.
2: An alternate version of my story is: Once upon a time there was a writer who was a teacher who was a mother who was a wife who was a knitter who was interested in photography and etymology and writing and reading and
When I go back to school, what should I study?
3. The ping-pong table has not had much use since you were last here. A bunch of the boys (xxxx, xxxxx et al.) went off to study for the year, so things are quieter around here on weekends. Otherwise we are working our butts off. You?
4: XXXXX, maybe you would know - how can I convince my friend that she is worth more than what her body can offer men? What can I do differently than what I've been doing in the 11 years that we've been friends?
XXXXXX, I don't expect you to know the answer. I think I am doing the right thing just by being here for her to talk to. I think she knows when she is being ridiculously self-indulgent and self-destructive. It does not mean either of us have to like it.
5: Did we ever talk about home birth? And my militant breastfeeding philosophy? And my rabid anti-vaccination stance? And my strong belief that all children should be taught sign language before they can talk? And my utter loathing of anyone who will let their baby 'cry it out'?
No?
Oh well. Some other day, then.
Any further discussion on my childbearing/raising techniques is available at your request.
XXXXX. How are you? You have been on my mind lately.
I hope all is well,
molly may