Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Under Pressure

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Can you get that bass line out of your head now? Nope, me neither.

I struggle with the failure to keep all of my goals. Not true. I can keep them all, just not all at the same time. If I want to write, I sacrifice working out. If I want to work out, I sacrifice focusing on my career. Approaching 40 is about the only thing that seems to be happening regardless of my intent.

On kinder days, I forgive myself. I have a baby. I have two preschoolers who are out of camp/school for another 3 weeks and need stimulation, attention, guidance. You know, parenting.

By 7:30, when they are all in bed, I’m exhausted. I’m spent. I feel uncreative and a total failure. For not meeting goals. For evaporating from society. For being lonely and having tried so much that hasn’t panned out.

But I tried.

The good news is, the working out is working.

But I’ll try to sneak in posts. Possibly not this week. The boys turn four on the 27th, and their party is this coming Sunday. We are apparently some sort of oddball family that doesn’t rent out a space, order in pizza, hire entertainment. We’re going Old School. Party in the Back Yard!

So if you don’t hear from me, look for me under the buttercream.