Act 3

It occurred to me that it has been 18 years (yikes!) since I graduated high school and this fall will be 15 years since I graduated college. Back in high school, I had a terrible time imagining myself in the future.

The career fair folks hated me because I just saw a blank slate. I don't know, I guess that's not a bad thing; I've been able to fill in that blank slate as I go. In college, I majored in Environmental Science and really enjoyed my classes. I haven't used my degree since 1998, though. I discovered I didn't like working in a lab when I interned at Argonne National Lab. But that's ok. I learned a lot and microbiology and toxicology classes can come in handy in every day life. 

I'm lucky enough that I've been able to reinvent myself a little along the way. I'm not the same person I was 18 years ago; I don't think most people are. They talk a lot about retirees having a second act. And maybe for earlier generations the post-career career was a second act. But for a lot of us, that'll be the 5th or 9th or 21st act. I'm already on at least my third. And I'm not just talking jobs but finding out who we are.

What have I filled in on that blank slate? Well, I couldn't have imagined my husband - I hadn't met him. And the idea of kids was very vague in high school. I had a college major picked out, but we can see how long that lasted. Would I have pictured myself at a credit union? Nope. Or how about moving to Indiana? Considering I was only familiar with northern Indiana and hadn't seen the hills of Bloomington, I would have laughed.  

Right now I'm in a temporary place: full-time mom. Yes, I know I'll always be mom. But when the kids are in school, they won't need me all the time, which is as it should be. When I'm done with the stay at home mom thing in a couple years, I'm going to go back to school. It's a scary prospect, but that's part of reinventing myself. You see, I have discovered that I like data. And there are degrees out there for people who like to play with data. 

Will there be something else after that? Who knows. I'll never say never. And the advantage of living in a university town is that learning new things is always possible, even encouraged. The next act is always just around the corner waiting to be discovered. 

So what about you? Is your life what you imagined? How is it different or the same? 

Our garden, a work in progress

After several years of neglect, we have really been working on the gardens this year, trying to make the yard look nice and finish projects in progress. I took some pictures today; there are some areas that are looking really good and some that need a lot more work.

Happy rose

 I'm very pleased that my roses are doing well. This one in particular is happy - on the northeast side of the house! It smells marvelous.

The area off the back patio is coming together nicely

 One area that needs some work is the shade garden. It has 'good bones' so it's just a matter of clearing out unwanted plants and making it pretty.

There's a bird bath hiding in there

Shade garden

 We have done some work the last few years to remove the invasive honey suckle from along the back fence. There is still much to do as a lot of weeds are growing there, including some chokeberry. Plus we need to remove the honeysuckle stumps. That's also where Chris's nemesis, poison ivy, tends to lurk.

Along the back fence

One of my favorite hidden treasures

 Currently I am working on clearing the grass from around some blue rug junipers I planted years ago along the driveway. We've mulched what is clear, but we still need to expand the line so they have room to grow.

 

Blue rug junipers

 We've been working on putting hardy water-tolerant plants in the front ditch. Because of the slope, it's not a fun area to mow so our goal is to fill it with plants. They need to tolerate a lot of water but also be hardy enough to not need watering. So, lots of day lilies, sedum, black eyed Susan, and periwinkle.

Front ditch

Another area we've been working on is the front 'island' where we have 2 redbud trees, 2 tulip poplars, native grass, 'ditch lilies', burning bush, peonies, and some bulbs.

Front island

Front island, from the other side

Then there's my 'rose garden', which is very sad. Even though it is on the south side of the house, the roses there aren't thriving as much as the backyard rose. They have also been neglected a bit, so we are starting to connect them into their own bed which will eventually expand to join the bed along the front of the house.

Rose garden

Old-fashioned rose

Bed along the front of the house

 There is a surprise in our back yard. He's been a good friend. One day I hope to build a bed around him, but that is for another year.

Our alien friend

We bought a rain barrel last year. Chris still needs to cut the gutter and hook it up. It would probably be full if we had gotten that done before April!

Rain barrel

 And because every garden should have one because he was a friend to animals:

St. Francis of Assisi 

Miss Scarlet

This is a somewhat fictionalized memory written based on the following prompt from The Red Dress Club.

This week, we want you to recall the games you played when you were young.

Did you love Monopoly, Yahtzee, or Uno? Or did you prefer backgammon, Trouble, or Scrabble?

Write a piece that explores one of your memories.

Let's have a 600 word limit.

We all wanted to be Miss Scarlet. Six young girls sat on a suburban porch, game board balanced on a table made from an old electrical wire spool, ready to play Clue. But first we had to argue over a little red token.

"I'm the oldest. I get to choose first," my sister, Tracy, declared.

"Not fair! you would always go first if we did that," Sarah protested.

"I never get to choose first. I think it's my turn." It was true. Gretchen never got to choose first.

"I'm the youngest. Shouldn't I choose first?" I knew I would lose the argument, but it was worth a try.

"You know I'm always Miss Scarlet." Becky snatched up the prized piece, placing it triumphantly on the board.

"Hey!" her twin, Susie, exclaimed with a frown. But it had been inevitable. Sticking our her tongue, she quickly grabbed her second choice, Mrs. Peacock, and placed the blue token in its starting place.

The rest of us took our usual characters: Mrs. White for Sarah, Mr. Green for Tracy, Mr. Plum for Gretchen, and Col. Mustard for me. The game quickly got started, as it did each time. We searched for clues to who dunnit, drinking lemonade and laughing.

Later in the evening we would play Kick the Can or Leftover Sardines, ranging along the whole block, most yards open to us, but afternoons, in the heat of the day, we played board games on our front porch. Some days it was Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit or Mousetrap. 

It's funny, looking back. Any other game I would have picked yellow without thinking twice. Yellow was my favorite color back then, a happy, sunny color. Tracy was always green, her favorite color. But add the characters and their personalities... well, what little girl wanted to be one of the men?

I still have that same copy of Clue. It sits on the game shelf along with the new version of Clue and all our other games. It still has some of the old marked up clue sheets from when we were young. My husband and I don't play games as often as we'd like these days, but we try. Games matter. They have been an important part of both of our lives. 

our game stash

Oh, and sometimes Miss Scarlet did it.