ask me a question/give me a prompt

My self-care has taken a dive these past few days, as I was mired in the stress and absurdity of a federal grant while still working part-time. Also the aforementioned medical tests for me and for Dash, all of which had good results (knockonwood), but which sent cortisol pumping through my veins. Exercise started to seem like a distant memory, and soon I was cramming pastries from Elsa’s Bakery into my face the way Dash crams his (much more nutritious) hands into his. And I haven’t been writing anything that doesn’t come with an RFP.*

Sweet, sweet pan dulce.

I got over the most arduous hump of federal grant (I hope), and today I actually ate five servings of fruits and vegetables, and took a walk. To Starbucks, but still.

On the way home from therapy today, I was listening to one of my new favorite podcasts, The Longest Shortest Time, which is pretty much a parenting-themed This American Life. I like it because it focuses on parents as people, which should be a given, but isn’t. And the parent-people it profiles are genuinely diverse; “alternative” doesn’t just mean making your baby wear rock-band onesies. I liked the piece about the mom who was a makeup artist for the traveling production of Wicked. She had to uproot her family (her husband was with the show too) every six-ish weeks and hire a new nanny in every town she visited and take long car trips with a two-year-old in the backseat. She pulled it off.

Hillary Frank and kiddo.

Anyway, in the most recent episode, host Hillary Frank interviewed a beauty blogger who encouraged her to ditch the notion of returning to her pre-baby weight and just make herself feel great in the body she had. I think this applies to adoptive moms who eat carbs because they’re tired too.

The show also has a really fun app where they pose questions, listeners record and upload an answer, and they play the best ones on the podcast. Of course I responded immediately. I’m such an attention whore.

I like the interactive nature of the app/podcast/Facebook group. It got me thinking that it’s been a while since I asked you, my six loyal readers, for help with my blog. I want you to ask me a question OR give me a creative writing prompt. The latter can be simple (“orange”) or complicated (“Write a piece of flash fiction using the second person and alluding to an event that is never explicitly discussed”).

I’ll spend a half hour each day blogging my answer. When the clock stops, my writing stops, so don’t expect my responses to have lovely little arcs. I just need to do something that feeds my soul instead of my face.

*Request for Proposals. Oh, Grantland. You are not just a sports and pop culture blog. You are a place I am a little sick of right now.