Pensamientos al dente
undercooked... but hopefully still edible
Welcome. This “publication” will be my feeble attempt at offloading some of the ideas constantly bustling around my head (it’s getting too crowded in there. I’m an external processor. Gotta get these bad boys out). I chose the name after sitting on my couch for ten minutes trying to think of something clever and punny that incorporated a classic children’s book title (I was staring at my daughter’s bookshelf), then surrendering that idea and moving onto food that I like (impasta syndrome almost made the cut). After sitting with the feeling of how ridiculous it felt to be trying to name a blog in a way that felt genuine but not too try hard… I gave up and went with the pasta theme. Al dente resonates with how this whole thing feels. A little undercooked. Hopefully, it suits someone’s taste.
That being said, I’m overly concerned with what others think of me, which is why publishing any thoughts online under my actual name feels like some form of torture. I want to treat this more like a private blog (target audience? Random strangers whose judgments can’t impact my life). When I was prompted to input my first subscribers, the concept of anyone who actually knows me in real life reading this was so humiliating, I opted to add only the joint email I keep with my husband… not even his personal email made the cut. If you’re reading this and you just so happen to know me, either the algorithm is out to get me, you’re way too invested in my life and somehow ended up here from google, or I put on my big girl chonies and sent it your way/started to actually take this seriously.
Despite my internal dialogue against turning this into another mommy blog, it would be disingenuous to pretend that the majority of my thoughts, time, energy, and sanity don’t go into momming at the moment. I’m 7 months pregnant with baby girl #2. Baby girl #1 is 19 months old (or one and half, depending on where you fall on the “using months to describe your child’s age after a year is stupid” debate). We’ll just barely make the 2 under 2 cut-off. My first actual post will be some word vomit about the vast array of parenting books I’ve consumed in audiobook format over the past month and my general takeaways. (Does anyone else find that audible subscription you signed up for to get a free book to now be impossible to cancel? I’m a girl rich in the unintended purchase of audible credits).
Mommy posts aside, other al dente pensamientos floating around my head include but are not limited to: the complicated nature of being an ethnic mutt (queue Selena Movie reference), the employer benefits of creating a child and parent-friendly workspace, the decline of civil discourse, the lonely experience of the peripheries and leaning out from faction, and how falling in love with multiple places is simultaneously beautiful and full of discontent. If I really get this going (unlikely) I might throw in some travel blogging.
Thanks for reading. If you happen to know me in real life, please pretend you don’t (unless you have really nice things to say).