So let’s not immediately think about quitting. How about we resize? As in, resize down for a bit. Now, shooting for the moon is one thing, excellent even, but trying to actually consume it is utter delulu. I used to be 100% guilty of this. Now I’m down to 35%… still a work in progress, but progress still. I’m a person with lofty-arse goals. Random ideas, notes written, typed and voiced in a million different places. My mind is like a thousand open, overstuffed filing cabinets and gigabytes of storage drives with no limits. My name is IreneB and I approve this message. It’s just how my mind works. She…
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Your Life Is Not Public Property: Keep Things Private
How did we stumble into thinking being open was the same as being accessible? You are allowed to keep things private. Especially as women. We’re constantly encouraged to “share our story,” “be authentic,” “show up as your true self,” and apparently that also means to yell into the internet about what we ate for breakfast, retell the story about keying an ex’s car that we told our therapist, and exactly what we’re doing with the rest of our lives. Umm… no. And that’s allegedly keyed an ex’s car. A lot of what’s happening or has happened in our lives should be kept private. Or, at the most, kept within our…
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The Machine Is Learning: Let’s Make Sure We Don’t Stop
Who remembers books? Just kidding! But also… not really.That mystical dimension before everything started finding us and we actually had to go looking for things. On the daily, I say something either out loud or just to me, within earshot of my phone, iPad, or laptop, and here goes my tech, serving up ads, articles, and videos of that thing to me all day long. I know the first few times that happened years ago, I probably thought it was luck. Nowadays we all know our devices are intentionally listening to us. Annoyingly so. Intrusively, even. And not to help us but to sell to us. And by ‘sell,’ I…
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Andropause? Suddenly Menopause Doesn’t Sound So Lonely
When the “Man-Flashes” Enter the Chat Ladies, Babes, Luvs, we need to talk… and now! I don’t know where I’ve been, but only recently did some little internet birdies clue me into the fact that something called andropause exists. Andropause? What’s andropause, you say? In the simplest of words: Menopause for men, kinda. Not gonna lie, I did smirk a little. OK, beam with cheshire-cat full glee. We women, damn near since birth, have had all kinds of shit piled on us. Coming out of nowhere is what it feels like. Jumping us. Sneak-attacking us. Sliding in like skid marks. One minute we’re playing as equals with the boys, then…
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The Right Cake
(A short story by Irene B.) Kira stood in the long, winding pickup line at Bake My Day bakery, already late and already irritated. Her thick, mid-length hair was pulled into a neat, low bun, with loose curls escaping just enough to brush her warm brown cheeks. The place should have been fast. It always was when she wanted a quick sneaky treat, no latte needed, which meant she could skip the second line for the custom, overly complicated orders. She’d placed the cake order last week for pickup today. In the past, it took a few extra minutes to add in a few more sprinkles, encouraged by the competent…
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How to Keep Going When You Don’t Feel Like It
Stick to Your Plan, Not Your Mood Well, confession time, for most of last week, I hadn’t worked out in literally five days. Including barely jumping on my rebounder. It was a busy week, it was a short week, and it was my birthday on Monday. Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee! Side note: My birthday year had already been off to a cracking start with ‘My Boys’, Arsenal, lifting the Premier League trophy just the month before. Yeah… I’ll absolutely take that lovely gift! ❤️🤍❤️ But back to this week, when the compressor thingamabob, whatchamacallit thing in our air conditioner unit broke, so it literally felt like I was sleeping in…
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As A Woman, Your Happiness Is Your Power
Why some people get uncomfortable when women are happy. Tell me if this is something you’ve noticed, suspected, or outright discovered, that there’s this special something about a rested woman. An unbothered spirit, a calm woman or even relatively steady woman that you’d think everyone would celebrate. But apparently, according to some corners of these here interwebs and in real life too, a woman who is genuinely content can make far too many people uncomfortable… strangely angered even. Freaking funny, isn’t it? Honestly, it’s a place I’d happily wallow in forever. But since life insists on life-ing, I’m learning to savor the moments, intentional and random, that I get to…
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How To See If You’re Choosing Not to Choose Happiness
I know… weird title, right? But I was thinking about this the other day. Not feeling bad, or stuck, or even bored, but because I was pausing on finishing something minor, I knew I needed to do, and had the time to do it. In my case, it was crazy simple, like having to find some images for my already written posts, yet I was actively choosing not to do it. Am I a dumb arse… maybe? But the way my brain is wired, it got me thinking and examining, and rethinking why. Why was I choosing not to just do it, when there was zero reason holding me back…
