Puppies and polar bears.

I was home several months ago, and exited a restaurant. I was holding the Little One, Dad was getting his coat and Mom had preceded me out the door into a small foyer. She gave some sort of exclamation upon seeing a woman she knew from work. After greeting each other, and asking after her friend’s new retirement lifestyle, she introduced the Little One.

I waited patiently, then smiled. I don’t rate an introduction of late. “I’m Katie.”

“The writer?!” My face fell at this. I know I’m far under my niece in order of importance, but who would call me a writer? I looked over at Mom and she shook her head, confused.

“Katie does [generic name of my field].” She stated proudly. I’ve told her this is an appropriate statement to describe my work and she’s appropriately memorized it.

“Who’s the writer?” I asked her. There are none in my family, so I didn’t think her friend was confusing me with a cousin or Brother. She made a face and shrugged.

“You are!” Said friend commented. “With the email from your dog!”

“Good Lord.” I said under my breath as I ducked my face to hide my blush. I peeked up at Mom. “You showed that to people?!”

“Oh.” Mom said with a smile she quickly tried to hide. “I might have forwarded it to a couple people.”

“It was adorable!” Her friend said, and turned to another woman. “Remember that email I sent you? When her dog was playing in the snow?! It was written from the dog's perspective!”

“Yes! Have you written any more?” The friend's friend asked, now excited as well.

I stammered a bit in embarrassment. “I, um, finished grad school. Got a job at [current university]. I do science, actually. I’m not a writer.”

“She does [generic name of my field].” Mom piped in helpfully once more. It’s pretty much all she remembers when it comes to my job.

“But the dog emails! They were just so cute!”

“Well, thank you. Really. But I don’t write so much anymore.” Then I frowned, thinking of the blog. I do write quite a lot. But serious journaling, I comforted myself. Nothing like dialogue from my puppy to her grandmother when she first saw snow.

Important topics.

Like polar bears.

The comments were, as always, good on this post. I won’t go into more detail here, but if you can add to the discussion, please feel free. I’m still thinking through what I want to do in my situation, and you guys, for whatever reason, are exceptionally kind when it comes to my examples. I appreciate your thoughts so far and will continue to add my own.