Happy Friday! So now that the cat is out of the bag and I've made it vocal that I'm adding some more personal posts to The Jersey Momma (called Beyond Momma, which I seriously hope I don't regret), I'm going to share the funny story of my mental epiphany with you. At least I hope you'll find it funny!
This post is part of an editorial section called Beyond Momma, where I share personal thoughts and stories. You can check out more of Beyond Momma here.
This whole pandemic thing has left me with some bad habits, and one of them is having a cocktail pretty much almost every evening (do you like that description? 'Pretty-much-almost-every'). And by evening I mean early evening (what? It was just called Happy Hour before the pandemic!). So during this one Early Evening Not-So-Happy Hour, I mixed myself a vodka cranberry, which was my drink of choice back in my younger days (heeeyyyy Marado Blu and Fatso's gang! I still love ya! Shout-out to Dave, Derek, Joe, John, Cliffy, Herb, Rob - and my gals Eileen, Nic, Jenn, aw, you know who you are). Then I grabbed Spot The Jersey Doggy's leash (and Spot, can't forget him) and figured I'd go for a walk to see if I could work some things out in my head about the blog.
While walking I started to get upset. I mean, really upset. I haven't cried (other than over grief or a death) in years (because let's be honest- crying would make my droopy old eyes even older looking, so I avoid tears out of age-fear), but all of a sudden I felt myself getting choked up at the thought of maybe closing down the blog or even -gasp-selling it (because these were the options I was considering at the time). What would I do? Publicly announce a hiatus? Would I just stop writing? Would I shut it down so people got a 404 error if they tried to find me? Oh, the horror!
I grabbed my phone and quickly messaged my old friend Nicole on Facebook, since we had just been messaging about this earlier in the day. What made me think of Nicole in that exact moment, I don't know. Nicole is my friend from high school and college but we haven't physically seen each other in years (we still chat on Facebook like most 40-somethings do). Whatever the reason, I grabbed that phone and quickly typed a message to her. "Do you have any ideas on how I could reinvent myself? I don't know what an old lady is useful for these days. I'm not technically 'the momma' anymore. What do people our age want to read about? I actually find that they don't want to read, which is part of the problem." That's all I wrote. Then I tucked the phone into the hip of my capri pants (because they don't have pockets) and kept on walking, trying to work things out in my head. A few minutes later, as I wallowed in self-pity, my Facebook messenger pinged. "Sorry I didn't answer," Nicole had responded. I wasn't sure what she meant at first. Answer what?
So I scrolled up and saw "audio call." after what I had originally written to her. Well, I certainly hadn't called her- god forbid! I don't use my phone for anything but texting, everyone knows that! I was mortified. I had 'hip dialed' an audio call to her through Facebook Messenger! What an idiot!!
Here's how the conversation went after that:
Me: Wait, did I send you an audio call? If I did it was an accident! I'm walking the dog and stuck my phone in my shorts! Sorry.
Nicole: Ha! Ass Dial!
Me: It was against my hip thank you very much.
Nicole: I think this would be relatable. Lol Diary of a Pandemic Mom! Screen shots of this convo. Especially ass dial vs. hip (tyvm), every day habits that may have changed.
Me: Hmmm. Maybe. Maybe sprinkle in some 80's and 90's flashbacks since we all seem to miss those days.
Then all of a sudden - PING- I get another Facebook message from another old high school friend that I haven't seen in decades (decades!!) but do occasionally talk to on Facebook (love ya, E!)
Holy crap, I had accidentally sent him a video chat! How did I manage to audio call one person and video chat another one at the same time, all from my hip?!? I showed Nicole a screenshot and told her, "that's the last time I have a vodka cranberry before my dog walk" to which she replied, "See, THESE are things that need to be on your blog." Well, there you go. And suddenly I wasn't so sad anymore. And suddenly I thought maybe she was on to something.
And suddenly, I think I'll stick with this blogging thing for a little while longer. 😉
Today's Theme Song: Every Little Counts - New Order
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