So… after yesterday’s post about experiencing imposter syndrome in relation to your career/life/finances/achievements, and Lucy Bellwood’s comment that our relationship to money and success changes as we grow older and/or more successful, well… it made me think “wait, I just wrote about that.”

Which means that it’s time for another excerpt from NEXT BOOK, aka A COINCIDENCE OF DOORS, aka THE NOVEL THAT WON’T GET PUBLISHED ANYTIME SOON BECAUSE IT’S NOWHERE NEAR READY YET.

I’ll present it without context, except to say “it’s supposed to be a Slack conversation.”

Here you go. ❤️

ellen.everton: omg that is the cutest sono ever

heidi.brinley: thx I made it myself

heidi.brinley: just the fetus not the sonogram

heidi.brinley: or did li’l feety make itself?

heidi.brinley: I don’t have the brain to wrap around that

ellen.everton: how are you doing?

heidi.brinley: PREGNATE

heidi.brinley: no starch masks yet though

heidi.brinley: honestly this is very weird

ellen.everton: adult life is consistently very weird

ellen.everton: they did not teach us this in school

mona.tiedeman: it took me until this year to understand that adults go through developmental phases just like children do

heidi.brinley: did you not read your ERIK ERIKSON

heidi.brinley: the man so nice they named him twice

mona.tiedeman: not just integration vs. despair or whatever it is, though

mona.tiedeman: everyone I know who’s entered their 50s in the past few years has changed in the exact same way

mona.tiedeman: and my dad decided to stop drinking when he turned 40

mona.tiedeman: and now I’m thinking that when I move, I’ll stop drinking too

mona.tiedeman: just establish myself in this new place as a non-drinker

mona.tiedeman: and I don’t know why except I just got tired of it

mona.tiedeman: the way it made me feel

heidi.brinley: you are ON TREND tho

heidi.brinley: it is a Millennial thing, we’re all teetotaling, I read an article

heidi.brinley: no wait I meant we’re totally teetotaling, that’s way better

heidi.brinley: and Tasha’s teetotaling the sosh meeds, she literally sent me A CARD last week

heidi.brinley: the Millennials are giving up

mona.tiedeman: see that’s exactly what I mean though

mona.tiedeman: it’s not a Millennial thing, it’s a “we’re exiting our 30s and our bodies are starting to hurt and suddenly we’re becoming obsessed with our health” thing

mona.tiedeman: just like my parents did when they were that age

mona.tiedeman: my mom got really into yoga

mona.tiedeman: so in your late 30s you try to change everything while you still can, and then in your late 40s you realize you can’t change everything and so you shit the bed

mona.tiedeman: my parents spent at least two years just screaming at each other

ellen.everton: my mother

mona.tiedeman: sorry I should have thought

ellen.everton: no, I think you’re right

heidi.brinley: my baby book is full of phases but then it just stops

heidi.brinley: there should be, like, the boy band phase

heidi.brinley: the friendship bracelet phase

heidi.brinley: (that one comes first)

heidi.brinley: moms should know about these phases

ellen.everton: and we should also know about our parents’ phases

ellen.everton: it would help us understand them more