In short, a closet wannabe author who wants to write about real women dealing with real life and all the challenges and upheavals life presents. There isn’t always a perfect ending, but the ending is as good as it can be under the circumstances.
In not so short:
I’m a 40-something native-born Latina*, entrepreneur, former peripatetic (Asia and the Middle East), and now woman about town – that town being Pound Ridge, in bucolic northern Westchester County, New York. I share an old (truly) colonial farmhouse with my Dearest Beloved, a renaissance man for the 21st century. We’re surrounded by horse farms and large reservoirs for NYC, and are just a one-hour train ride to the Center of the Universe as needed. And it is needed more than you might realize.
You see, I’m also a full time stepmother to two teenage children. Ay caramba!
Not always as glamorous as it sounds. I probably don’t need to tell you that becoming a stepmother can automatically consign you into the role of the wicked stepmother before you’ve even uttered a peep.
But when it comes to this site, you won’t read about how awful stepmotherhood can be…well, you won’t read about that too much. It’s not as bad as it could be, but I’ll admit there have been some days when I’ve been ready to pack my bags and run out the door, hair on fire-like, never to return. Doubts about my stepparenting abilities plague me, with self-chastisements and despair as close companions. Yet, random, often minute, acts of kindness or fleeting acceptance from the kids punctuate my life and, voila!, it all seems tolerable, even worth it. Hope does beckon.
This blog is more than about stepparenting. It’s about other topics: experiences of and observations from a Latina living in a, well, pretty white town. (It is pretty. It is white). Herein are my consternations and contemplations on a variety of subjects that cross my mind, latina-related or not.
In September 2011, I enrolled in heavy duty (for me) writing workshops, which continue to this day. I wanted to “express” myself and the inner turmoils I experience. I didn’t realize that “expressing” yourself in a draft to be read to others can cause its own turmoil. Yet, I persevere, compelled to carry on. I’ve had the opportunity to work with an inspiring group of writers – ordinary people having their own struggles and putting words to paper in a way that transports readers into other lives. I’d like to be able to do that someday for someone else. Until then, well, we’ve got my blog.
Thank you for taking the time to visit.
*or is it Hispanic? Latina AND Hispanic? What’s the diff? More to come on that topic.
poundridgeplume 