He wasn’t spooked, not even for a moment.

Instead, he put down his hammer just long enough to send a quick reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

It was my last week, the end of a nine-year tenure for a job into which I’d poured my heart and soul. I was sorting through files, determined to leave everything in perfect order for the person stepping into my role. I wanted nothing more than to end well and set him up for success.

I should have seen it coming. After all, communicating persuasively runs through her genes.

My husband and I were adamantly opposed to my 16-year-old daughter getting a job – at least during the school year. We were fine with the occasional babysitting gig. What we didn’t want was for her family time/homework availability to be dictated by minimum wage. However, my daughter seldom sees "no" as the final answer.

44 is the new 24. Just because I’ve used a rotary phone, inserted a floppy disk into my IBM, and I once placed a two-for-one order for the soundtracks to Pretty Woman and Romeo and Juliet (Leo!!!) from Colombia House means absolutely nothing.

She was the epitome of a “plain Jane.” Faithful and unassuming, Jane attended weekly church services with her family, and she gave regularly to those in need. Her dad was a pastor, and two of her brothers followed in his footsteps. Jane, meanwhile, was more likely to put her thoughts on paper than to preach.

I picked up my phone and texted the group, starting the confession with a gif of a woman covering her head in a box of shame. It’s me. I did it. I’m the problem. Crawling into a hole now.

Not too long ago, I had someone say to me “How do you do all that you do? You must be Super Woman!” 

In that moment, I wasn’t proud; I was embarrassed – and apologetic. 

Glamping in a 20-foot trailer has accentuated what I’d already discovered during 3 months of quarantine in our two story house:

Family is really hard, because love is really hard.

When I said I wouldn’t ride Goliath, I meant it with every ounce of my being. But there I was, standing with my two kids, a close friend, and her two children in line for the coaster that holds THREE Guinness World records for speed, length and steepness of drop.