"We're halfway through our morning routine!" said the chipper older gentleman behind me in line at Trader Joe's. "She could be a service dog, look how good she is, she knows the routine!" he said, smiling lovingly toward his sweet Pittie patiently waiting for a treat. Here you go, Cassie, I offered, digging out one …
Author: shannonlynbrady
I’m over 50. Past menopause. Missed the motherhood boat and said no thanks to chasing a six-figure career. AND. I have no regrets. I am where I am and it’s perfectly imperfect. Getting to this level of acceptance has taken a lifetime of work, and the work never ends.
Why being at the bottom of the leaderboard isn’t so bad
Dead. Last. After scrolling through the list of recorded barbell back squat weights in my "Wodify" app this morning, I found my name at the bottom. Got lots of high fives, but landed dead last nonetheless. Oof. Talk about confronting my weakness. It's just a number. But the emotional load is heavy. Yeah, yeah, yeah..my …
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From Santa Fe to Seattle: A Christmas Journey
I already knew the answer. Even if my senior cat was a little slimmer than in his licking-the-bowl-clean heyday of yore, my long-torsoed, Bombay beauty was not going to fit under an airplane seat. "Guess we're road tripping it then," my less-than-enthusiastic husband sighed. The week of Christmas. I'd already made peace with spending the …
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Sorry for the delay. The electrician is back in rehab.
I'm in rental home number three since relocating to Santa Fe a year ago. It wasn't supposed to be this way. But meeting a targeted move-in date when building a home is about as common as knowing where the light switch is upon first entering an Airbnb after dark. Yesterday the man and I rented …
Continue reading Sorry for the delay. The electrician is back in rehab.
Just do the f***ing wall balls
"Try this one," my coach suggested, handing me the lightest weighted ball available for five upcoming rounds of wall ball in a 40-minute Crossfit 'lite' class I signed up for last week. The ball was made of leather, shaded black and red, and designed to be hurled from a squat position overhead to a designated …
WTF happened to my house?
Let's take a drive, I suggested. Sounds like a line out of the Sopranos, but in actuality, it was just me, and my mom, with a few hours to kill in Seattle last weekend before my niece's wedding. Neither of us had been to our hometown in some time, and I wanted to see what …
Smaller is better, even if the man and the cat have to share a room.
"You mean the cat gets his own bedroom?" my husband wanted to know. Um, yes. And you have to share it with him. Before you deem me a crazy cat lady (and childless..that part is true), I can explain... We aren't having marital problems. And he gets the night shift with me in the main …
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What my sore Achilles is teaching me about coming home
It flared up around mile three, at the top of an undulating trail in Santa Fe I've been running several mornings a week since moving here last November. The narrow cord above my right heel stopped me in my tracks. Right when all systems said go. Heart, lungs, muscles..perfect harmony in motion. Alas, instead of …
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I’m a little closer to breaking up with my storage unit
Photo by Huu Huynh on Pexels.com The plaid-shirted checkout guy at Trader Joe's and I compared lame upcoming weekend plans as my pistachio nuts crossed the scanner yesterday. "Watcha gonna do?" he asked. Get a storage unit, I replied. Not to be outdone, he topped me with his: "gotta drive my pickup to Albuquerque and …
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From dirt to dwelling
Look at that duct work! My husband got so excited pointing out the silver tubing snaking behind the interior wall framing in our Sante Fe home project. I tried to get excited. I did. But I'm looking forward to the sexier stuff to appear..like our wall tile in stormy mist. And the massive, limestone wrapped …
Her Next Address 