Category: Uncategorized

It’s Okay If You’re Not Celebrating Today

Mother’s Day is not my day. I get fatigued at seeing all of the praise being showered upon all mothers as beings above all other beings.

Yes, there are obviously fabulous mothers among us, and as an American woman, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to advocate for mothers considering our lack of maternity leave or paid leave of any kind, lack of affordable childcare, workplace discrimination, and a trash mountain of other pressures faced by mothers on a daily basis.

That aside, it’s a fallacy that mothers know best, give the best advice, make the best decisions for their families, etc, etc….

Mothers are human beings with flaws. They make terrible decisions and give awful advice sometimes. That is probably the best case scenario and still makes for a great mom.

For me and my family, we had a mother who felt she was owed for the inconvenience and sacrifice of motherhood and would eventually tell us that. But before she said as many words, she stole identities, checkbooks, our sense of security, pieces of our childhoods along with pieces of our futures.

I haven’t spoken to my biological mother on over 10 years, and it’s a relationship I consider long past dead. I don’t have any desire to reconnect or have a conversation of any kind. Some people find that deplorable because, and I quote, “But she’s your mom.”

I tried. Believe me, I tried. The constant threat to being able to establish myself as a successful adult, the guilt trips, the bailouts – it all became too much.

After she paid me back one final time for yet another financial bailout I gave her as a broke college student, I was done. I moved, I changed my phone number. I even cut off contact with my siblings for years to prevent her from knowing where I was or how to reach me. I lost a lot of time and contact with people I care about. All because of a selfish, narcissistic woman.

As secure as I am in the choice that I made, it doesn’t make this day any easier to stomach. I know I’m not alone. I’ve heard far too many stories from people like me who did not grow up with mothers or fathers who nurtured them or set them up for success, whether financially or even emotionally.

The same goes for Father’s Day. There are great dads, but there are also bad ones or completely emotionally unavailable dads. I have a pretty good relationship with my dad as an adult, but there is A LOT of baggage there.

I just wish these days that we celebrate our parents could come with less, well, shit.

Whatever you’re feeling today, feel it. If you’re celebrating, that’s wonderful. But don’t feel guilty for not feeling all that celebratory. There are a lot of us out here.

WhitneyLeave a comment

A year

It’s hard to feel motivated or inspired by the change of the calendar that’s about to occur. I’m not setting any goals or thinking about making 2021 my year today. Truthfully, we will all wake up tomorrow plagued by the same problems we have today. Sure, I wish that were different, too. It’s hard to use 2020 as a baseline for any goal-setting or framing of the year to come because it was so unlike any other and we just don’t know what’s ahead.

Still, I hope that you have found things to be grateful for. I hope you have found moments of peace and happiness this year. For me, I have never been more grateful for the written word and the escape that reading has provided me. I also feel like I really came to know my independence and mental toughness and my ability to adapt and survive in ways that are appropriate for me. While there have definitely been plenty of days of sadness and feeling suffocated by the weight of this year, I’ve somehow managed to embrace the slow-down and the time without plans. I’ve become reacquainted and comfortable with silence.

This year has brought a deeper realization of my values, and I hope that the same will prove true for society as a whole as we start to see our way out of this.

More than anything, I am thankful that myself and my family have made it through this year with our health, and my biggest wish is for that to continue as people begin to be vaccinated.

Happy New Year and good riddance to this garbage year. Wishing you all love and light in the year to come.

WhitneyLeave a comment

I think it started on Halloween

Has anyone else been struggling with some rage issues? Like you feel it, but you’re not sure what to do about it. If you express said rage, you might ruin relationships. But also, maybe it’s okay because MAYBE YOU DON’T WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE WHO CAN’T STAY THE FUCK IN THEIR HOUSES IN A GOD DAMN GLOBAL PANDEMIC ANYWAY!!!!!

Okay listen – I am a rule-follower by nature. I’m also insanely introverted. I can do alone way more than basically anyone I know. I do not suffer from FOMO to the slightest degree. I also have a partner whose company I enjoy 98% of the time, and we are both still employed and working for companies that have given us the ability to work from home. I am wildly fortunate, and I recognize that.

On the other hand… I cannot for the life of me understand why a single person, healthy or not, would just be like, “Welp, if I get it, I get it. I mean, I’ll probably be fine. Statistically speaking.”

Let’s say that’s true. You’ll be fine. But what about all of the unassuming people your reckless dumb ass comes into contact with who are just trying to work their job that we the public have deemed essential, for which they almost definitely do not get paid enough, and I don’t know… NOT DIE. This is why I have had to restrain myself from chucking my phone at the wall for the last 6,7,8 months whenever someone posts online that we shouldn’t judge people for their choices.

FUCK YOU, YOU NO EMPATHY HAVING MONSTERS! I WILL JUDGE YOU FOR YOUR CHOICES WHEN YOUR CHOICES DO NOT EXIST IN A VACCUUM IN THIS PARTICULAR SITUATION!

And furthermore, you do not know that you will be fine, so why would you risk it? Personally, my lungs, brain, and heart are my 3 favorite organs. All of those organs could be permanently damaged by COVID.

It’s the week of Thanksgiving, and judging by how things have escalated the last couple weeks, it bears out that all of the people who couldn’t handle chilling the hell out on Halloween have made an already very bad thing much worse. The hospital down the street from me in Denver is full last I heard, and meanwhile, I know people getting on planes.

I’m tired, too. I used to LOVE our weekly grocery store trip. Now, we go bi-weekly and shop like it’s the actual apocalypse to keep ourselves out of circulation as much as possible. I have not walked out of my apartment door without a mask on my face since May 6, when the Denver mandate was implemented. Every trip out of the house has a damn strategy. I haven’t sat down to eat at a restaurant since March. I. AM. TIRED. I miss the movies, theater, concerts, yoga in a studio, and not having to think about what I’m touching or how close people are standing to me. I have seen 6 friends in person since March, and only 2 of them more than once. My family lives an hour away, and I am not seeing them for Thanksgiving, and maybe not Christmas either. We definitely aren’t traveling to see Harrison’s family for Christmas like we have for the last almost decade. I get it. This sucks. But guess what I’m not sick of – being healthy and not spreading a deadly virus.

So yeah, I’m judging you because I know what other people have given up and continue to give up while you just can’t be bothered.

I am not the person to show your Thanksgiving photos to, and I am NOT the person to complain to about the stresses of holiday traveling. The CDC has given you a giant wide open out.

WhitneyLeave a comment

Larry, Curly, and Mo(l)e

I am generally a very mole-y white person thanks to the great genes handed down from mostly my dad’s side of the family. My grandpa, my dad, and I have all had suspicious moles removed. I get my skin checked every year because a) I will use my health insurance while I have it, and b) I am real scared of skin cancer, especially because I live in Denver. Fun fact: being closer to the sun means there’s a higher risk of skin cancer.

If you’ve known me or met me at any point in my life, you’ve known me with 3 sizable moles on my face. They make a triangle!

fullsizeoutput_6b5

When I was a kid, the moles on my face were basically freckles, and three freckles in the shape of a triangle on a little kid was cute. Then I got older, and they got bigger.

fullsizeoutput_6b6
Age 11

And bigger.

IMG_2003
Age 20. Also with a spray tan and heavy make up after a performance.

And bigger.

IMG_2001
Age 32.

I started to really hate them about the time I reached college. For a while I was retouching pictures to hide them, which is obviously stupid because disappearing them from pictures didn’t disappear them from my face.

The first time I asked about getting them removed, I was about 21. I went to a dermatologist who told me they weren’t suspicious, and removing them would be a cosmetic procedure that I would have to pay for out of pocket. That was that. I couldn’t afford it.

So they stayed on my face, and I tried not worry about it. They continued to grow and take on lives of their own. Ever had a pimple ON TOP OF A MOLE? This has happened several times. Once one of them started bleeding, and it took forever to get it to stop. It was quite an embarrassing problem.

About two years ago, I made an appointment with a cosmetic surgeon my dermatologist recommended, and then I cancelled it. I don’t really know why. I think part of it was that I felt guilty about the prospect of spending such a large chunk of money, but I also felt weird about changing my face in a very significant way. I think I felt what I can only describe as shame for wanting to change myself. How dare I do something strictly out of vanity. I mean, most people say they don’t really notice them. It’s just my face. And then there were the people who said they liked them and that it made me unique. As genuine as those comments may have been, I always felt like those people were just trying to make me feel better about something I could not easily change, and it certainly did not lessen my insecurity.

Over the last year or so, that insecurity almost became unbearable. They’re so big, and one of them kind of looks like a nipple. I can’t look at a picture of myself without my eyes being drawn immediately to the left side of my nose.

fullsizeoutput_6bb

So like a band-aid or a protruding facial mole, I ripped it off. I paid in advance, so I couldn’t back out and go through the same song and dance again. They’re gone. I’m stitched up, and what an incredible sense of relief and a weight lifted.

Ge0ltXG6S0miY5zslMjCsg

I’ve heard it all, and I’m sure I’ll continue to hear it. I’m sorry if you’ll miss them or if you liked my face before. I’m sorry if you disagree with my vanity. Trust me, I have worked really hard to have a positive relationship with my body and my appearance. I love my size 12 body because it’s strong and healthy and allows me to do so many things I love, and I’ve grown to appreciate the wrinkles that continue to deepen on my face. There are very few things about my appearance I would go out of my way to change.

But here’s the thing… If you’ve never popped a pimple on top of a mole that is on your face, had a mole gush blood with no sign of stopping, or worried so intensely about whether people notice that you have an inflamed mass on your face, it’s not something I expect you to understand.

Do the things that make you feel happy and confident. If you think it’s the right decision, but you’re worried about what other people will think, it’s probably the right decision.

Pardon me while I go change my Steri-strips.

Whitney1 Comment

Maybe when I have all the money, I’ll care about close seats, too.

Me: Do you want to go to the Nuggets game on March 2nd? I can get $14 tickets through work.

Dad: Where are the seats?

Here we go.

Me: In the 300s. They’re $14.

Dad: We want to go, but we would want to sit closer.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? IS IT AN OLD PERSON VISION THING?!?! THERE’S A JUMBO-TRON! Also DAD, I have to have fun on a budget because of those student loans I’m paying because of that college you thought I should have to pay for literally for the rest of my life because of bootstraps or something. 

Me: I didn’t look at the price of those. I’ll check.

Dad: Okay, well if you and Harrison want to go and the tickets are more expensive, you can just pay me the $14, and I’ll cover the rest.

I’m a 32 year old woman with a job and am about to agree to allow my dad to subsidize a closer seat to a Nuggets game.

Me: They’re $57.

Yikes.

Dad: Let’s do it.

Okay………… That’ll be $200.

The difference between Boomers and Millennials is how close they care to be to the court.

 

WhitneyLeave a comment

Professional networking is my personal hell

If there is one thing I’ve learned from people I know who have found new career opportunities, it’s that those opportunities have come to them through a connection they’ve made. I have heard no less than 2 people in the last month say, “This just kind of fell in my lap.”

WHAT?! HOW?!!!!

My lap covers some territory, and I’m not over here catching any specks of good fortune on the career front.

My stepmom always says, “You have to get in front of the right people.”

Well, shit.

I don’t exactly love being in front of people or being the center of attention. My most comfortable state is completely alone, anonymous, observing rather than participating. I recently took a personality test that put me at 86% Introvert and only 14% Extrovert. Basically, 14% of the time I want to be with other humans, and that sounds…uh…correct.

When I’m not at work, you might find me watching TV or reading a book alone. I prefer to run errands alone. I prefer to shop alone, and am often reminded of this whenever I invite a friend to the mall with me because I’ve forgotten how much I dislike shopping with other people. I go to yoga alone and speak to no one except when I give the teacher my name at the front desk.

My dudes and dudettes, this level of introversion is not a joke.

Harrison used to ask me, “Is this really all you’re going to do tonight?” as he leaves me on the couch with a book or a very deep Netflix queue on a Friday night to go to (probably) a comedy show or open mic. Then he stopped asking because my answer was always, “YES.”  Harrison spends a lot of evenings out at open mics, so our relationship has been incredibly accommodating. Some might say enabling.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), I have a new friend who is constantly inviting me to get involved in things despite her own innate inclination to stay home. And as much as I don’t want to, I know I need to.

I spent the last two evenings at engagements geared toward young professionals with her. One of them is actually a choir, and I’m legit excited about that. I loved singing in choirs when I was younger, and at least I’m in a room with people working toward a common goal. The singing part I can handle, but the conversing with fellow singers is the hard part.

The other event was a happy hour for young professionals at a fancy hotel bar and um, it was the worst.

First of all, I’m not fancy, and I always feel out of place in those environments. I own exactly one blazer that I think I’ve worn exactly twice. At a young professionals happy hour, you better bring your blazer. I am also THE MOST AWKWARD. I’m bad at starting conversations, and I am really terrible and feigning interest in things that I find absolutely dull. I wear my heart on my face. Eye contact with strangers? Lol. Please. I usually find myself following around the one person I know trying to interject myself in their conversations and doing a very bad job of it.

Introversion is not a condition that needs to be cured, but damn it’s hard to be an introvert in a world that places so much value on the charismatic and gregarious over the quiet observers.

I’ll just be over here…tired from all the people-y stuff I’ve had to do and wishing I were at home.

giphy
Via GIPHY

 

WhitneyLeave a comment