Pleasant Valley Mom Blog, Part I

OK, everyone says I need to blog. Me, the technophile. But I do like to write, and I think my few online friends are getting tired of reading my long-winded and incomprehensible emails. The emails exhaust them! They wonder why I have the time to write them.

Let me introduce myself. I am a Pleasant Valley Mom. I was, and still am, an attorney (but please, no requests for legal advice). I worked for 15 years in the corporate world before becoming a Pleasant Valley mom, which happened when I had twins with medical complications. We moved from the great and glorious city of Oz, which I adored, to Pleasant Valley, the BURBS.

I cried the day we signed the contract for the $300,000 plus monstrosity of a house. I had told myself for years that I wanted a big house, a house on a hill. Well, that day was here. The house was even on a hill, which is unusual for this part of the country. But I cried and cried. The builder representative in the model home didn't know what to do. He even said, "you know, you can keep looking. You don't have to buy this house." But one day of house hunting with infant twins, one on a monitor, had done me in. My husband wanted a proper house. We needed a yard for the kids , right now! (kids who would not walk for at leat four more months). My mom thought we should buy a home. I had just lost my job, but look, with the miracle of creative financing, we could still buy a home that we could afford on ONE income! Even though I hadn't even put my townhome on the market, since it was in my name, this house could be in my husband's name! (so now, with one stroke, I lost my career AND my house and moved into someone else's house).

My neighbors in our lovely little townhome neighborhood said we didn't want a house. We didn't want the upkeep. We didn't need the commute. We didn't need the expense. We should raise our kids in the nice little community where we were, which was mostly retired people. (Even they moved away two years later).

My head said we shouldn't do this thing. But my heart said, look, a new house! No more old plumbing! No more Falling Down Manor! (This was our nickname for the old house).

Look, great schools! No trees, but they will grow!!! A yard! Space for all my stuff. No more rented storage off site for my collectibles. Lots of room for all of our furniture. We can each have our own office! No more sharing an office was a big deal for us because it was crowded in there.

We can afford it. We will manage. I will probably go back to work soon anyway. I won't be one of those SUBURBAN MOMS!!!

Well, ten years later, guess what???? I'm still an attorney but I am on inactive status (meaning I don't practice law and I don't have to pay expensive bar dues). I have tried a few odd jobs (some of them really odd, but I will go into that later).

And I sometimes HATE it out here. Which is why I call it Pleasant Valley. Remember the Monkey's song, "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday, here in Status Symbol Land" ? Well, that's where I live.

But I don't belong here. Someone let me out!!!!!

And you will find out why I don't belong here.... next time.

Pleasant Valley Mom, signing off.