And there ain’t no Road Just Like it, Anywhere I’ve found.

I have an MBa,  but my proudest academic achievement was Minoring in English and furthermore success in one particular Fiction class.

I signed up for Fiction thinking it would be fun and easy.  The 1^st day I met the prof, Dr. Dyke, who introduced Feminist Speculative Fiction.  I also think she was a lesbian who hated men passionately but that isn’t important right now.  So now I’m worried, instead of reading the Great Gatsby or Hemingway I’ll be spending a semester reading that guys are dogs!

Funny how adversity can often become a great opportunity though!

So we began reading novels about all-female planets that reproduce hermaphroditically and other utopian worlds where men are either non-existent or at least not important.

At mid-semester came time for a big report.  I had the feeling that Dr. Dyke was going to zing us guys.  But, surprisingly, we just put social security numbers on our papers.  So Dr. Dyke had no idea if the paper was male or female (unless she checked) but I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.  Anyway I A’ced the mid-term and then hit the final out of the park.

The final was a feminist novel about WWII that I contrasted with Herman Wouk’s the Winds of War.  I developed a thesis that the Feminist world perspective from a pop-culture standpoint more accurately represented history.  Victory in WWII resulted from a joint world effort, not American jingoistic cowboyism!  And because women are better at “no I in team” and tend to have more of a world view, the feminist perspective more accurately depicted the period.  Dr. Dyke concurred and I was one of the few A’s in the class!

So I got the satisfaction of knowing I could write like a feminist and hopefully Dr. Dyke thought student **5-**-***5 was one hell of gal!  Of course Shannon would translate this into “I’m  good at bull *hit’ing people!”  Which, I’ll admit, is often true!  J

So what does this have to do with anything other than it seems that I’m a closet Transgendered writer or full of *hit!   :?

Well, in a twisted way I have enjoyed my Shannon’s story.  And additionally I really enjoyed my AM Theater post Giselle Seeks a FWB.  So I guess I like trying to write from the female perspective.  Or maybe I’m just trying to evolve into Mel Gibson’s character in “What Women Want!”

Alex reminds me of Shannon

So now I have decided my next female story will be the mock blog I think Alex (from “Up in the Air”) would write if she was out here with us.

AM Theatre – Alex’s Blog: The Not so Chaste Tale of a Lincoln Park Traveling Soccer Mom

Alex speaking.....

Yesterday I heard that song "Lakeshore Drive" and it took me back to high school and the night I gave my virginity to a cute boy with that song in the background on some “oldies” station.

After enjoying that memory I started thinking about my life and where I was going back in the 90’s and where I’ve been.  For so many years I’ve understood exactly who I was.  And now that I’m 2 years beyond 40 I’m trying to decide if I know more about myself than I did listening to Alliotta and Haynes sing that song while having sex in my boyfriends car near the lake.

I was a Chicago girl then and I still am today.

But perhaps I should introduce myself before I go on.  I’m Alex a 42 year old mom of two with a fast paced career in consulting and married to my post college aspirational man for these past 18 years.

I do love living in the city.  We moved back to the Lincoln Park area a few years ago.  This is a hip trendy enclave within the city.  I like the mixed pace.  It’s funny how you can move back into the city to enjoy the slow life.  I love being able walk to a whole foods store for my coffee in the morning or take the El to soccer practice.

We tried the 3,000 square ft McMansion in Napierville for a few years.  But Ned (my husband) and I decided to move back into the city a few years ago and I have no regrets.  The city is all about independence and that is what I feel in myself these days.  In Napierville we were chained to an hour plus commute, yard care, and boring neighbors whose few interests included refinancing, home schooling, and watching the grass grow.  Funny, sounds kind of like a relationship if you’re not careful.

I grew up in Evanston, the precocious child of two teachers (my dad being a headmaster of a progressive Country Day School).  I guess being good on the outside made me want to be a little bad on the side.  But mostly in high school and college I was the high performing type who also dated the basketball star.  At Northwestern I dated the point guard, Bobby, for two years.  But somewhere during my senior year I started to think I had more to offer the world than to be Mrs. Point Guard.  Perhaps Dr. Bronstein, my Marketing Psychographics professor, helped that as well.  I decided at that point to change majors from dating jocks to dating professors.  Perhaps Dr. Bronstein’s nice ass and the fact that he spent summers in Spain made him alluring.  But after taking Dr. Bronstein’s class and a half semester Independent study I decided to move on.

After that semester fling with the Baby Boom generation I met Ned.  I was close to graduation and I felt I needed to settle into my generation.  Ned was what I knew I wanted all along.  He was to be the editor of the Northwestern law review next year, a sure fire star Tax Attorney in waiting, from an affluent gentrified family that was well traveled, and very confident.  Did I mention he was everything except a guy who could make me cum 3 times in one night?  Well, I had my jocks, my musicians, my professors – it was time to settle down, this is the guy who I will own a home with, have pleasant conversation and children with, go to concerts and soccer games with.  I’d moved on, maybe my clit should as well I told myself.  At the end of the day all those “great sex” guys were never that great after about 5 months anyway.  Or so I told my 20-something self.

Alex's 1st HNT as well

Now flash forward to 2012 and I have realized that family, career, and great sex are not always concentric circles within the life of a 40 year old woman and yet should not be mutually exclusive.  But how to make those circles overlap into one life that I can enjoy?  Well, I guess that’s why we blog!  So that voyage of discovery will be the mission of this blog going forward.

I hope some of you will join me and let me know your thoughts.