I Run These Towns

Today I had several moments where I felt like a total boss lady. At one point I was walking down the hall in a plaid, sheath dress that fits me perfectly, red heels and a giant coffee and thought damn, I'm rocking this. Lest you think I've got it all together this moment less than three hours before LPD discovered I'd left my car running for two hours in the City Hall parking garage. It turns out this parenting thing is tough. And I find it surprising. I have to be honest: my son was an excellent baby. He rarely cried. He slept, ate, went to the bathroom and developed beautifully. It was honestly so easy sometimes that I thought really...what do people think is so tough about this parenting thing? He started to throw the occasional tantrum around 18 months, but again his tantrums were manageable. He is strong-willed and wants to get what he wants. As he turned two and three we still had occasional tantrums, but they were rare. I have a good friend who told me the age of

This year two things I love doing are being threatened: wearing heels and pushing myself beyond my limits. I am not amused. For several months I've been having varying degrees of back pain. It's BS, and I don't have time for it. I take ibuprofen several times a day and power through, and it's mostly been working. In March I spent a week in Boston at an executive education class at Harvard. We were told there'd be a lot of walking during this week-long class. It was a 20 minute walk to class if one chose to not take the shuttle (which obviously I'm walking). The day before I left I realized I would need two things: more comfortable shoes and pants. I hurriedly went and bought both, and off to Boston we went. The day we arrived I changed into pants and flat shoes. I'll be honest: I was self-conscious. Heels and skirts are just who I am, and it felt so weird. I wore comfy shoes all week, and Friday morning I woke up and realized my back wasn't hurting.