About Me

I always knew I’d be a mother. And, I always knew I’d be a writer. Luckily, I was able to keep the mothering thing at bay until long after I earned the degree designed to make me rich and famous. Sure, I landed a job at the storied TV Guide magazine, but never had a single word published. On the upside, that’s where I met my spouse-to-be and we ultimately rode off in the sunset to make a life for ourselves in northern New Jersey. I spent my newlywed years birthing babies in rapid succession and working at CNBC. I had a great job as the in-house copywriter and actually made money writing ads and brochures about money matters I knew nothing about. But then, in one of those “be careful what you wish for” twists of fate, I was laid off and relegated to a world of working from home while raising the offspring.

It became immediately apparent that life as a freelance writer wasn’t going to be as lucrative or effortless as I had imagined. While juggling three small children, an unruly dog and a husband who worked way too many hours, I scribbled headlines on napkins from Chuck E. Cheese’s, wrote copy while ignoring blood curdling screams and took conference calls behind locked bathroom doors.

I muddled through the next decade-and-a-half as the kids morphed from demanding toddlers to moody middle-schoolers to teenagers who wanted nothing more than to be left alone. I worked less and volunteered more, all the while guiltily lamenting my life in a corporate cubicle. And then, one day I emerged from the haze and realized that my youngest child was a senior in high school. I momentarily paused, then panicked, then picked up a pen.

I always knew I’d be a mother. And I always knew I’d be a writer. And now it’s time to put the two together. As one chapter comes to an end, my blog begins.

Welcome to Old Mini-Vans Die Hard, the tales of an empty-nester in the making.