people
SETTING THE STAGE
DON’T WEAR SWEATS OR YOUR HUSBAND WILL LEAVE YOU
I
used to love stirrup pants. You know, the pants that had little hooks that went around your feet. I used to love pleated pants. I even used to love pants that actually covered my belly button thereby making my butt look twice as big as it was. But my tastes have changed over the years. Come to think of it, a lot of things have changed over the years. I was a lawyer, and then I was a lawyer and a wife. Then I was a retired lawyer, wife and mother. And now, at almost forty years old, I am a wife, a mother, and a writer. I have loved every stage of my life thus far. Not everything in each stage. I could have lived without a kid peeing in my eye. I could have lived without the endless discussions with other new moms about when their kids sat up, or began eating solids. Good times nonetheless. So for a straight ten years I was at the mom stage. Then, my kids started growing up, started ignoring me, and free time was born. I asked myself what I am sure many other moms around me have asked. Is there something else? What is the next stage? I was out to dinner one evening with another couple when the wife posed one of the most powerful questions I have ever been asked. “If you were guaranteed success, what would you do?” And without hesitation, I knew. I would write a book. A book about us. About moms, about the comedy that is our lives. Our kids, our husbands, our friends, etc. After that dinner, I began to question why I never started writing. Was I that scared? What was going to happen if I started? So I decided to find out, and so I started writing. The result, my book “Don’t Wear Sweats Or Your Husband Will Leave You”, and my blog, dontwearsweats.com. Don’t Wear Sweats was born out of my obsession with
a woman I would run into around town. Every time I saw her, she was wearing sweatpants. I started to obsess. Why doesn’t she want to get dressed? Is she tired? Is she about to take a long flight? Does she have pants that button? Don’t misunderstand. I am not against sweatpants. I am against the lack of effort they sometimes represent. I think for a while, I was going through life in sweats. Everything was good, but I could have been better. I was getting too comfortable and not pushing myself to be the person I knew I wanted to be. Don’t Wear Sweats is a humorous look at the lives of the modern woman. I want the reader to feel like they are talking to a good friend. But a good friend that will tell them when they are doing something wrong. With chapters entitled, Veruka Salt, which discusses spoiling your kids, to Game Set Match, a realistic depiction of the games men and women have to play to maintain a good relationship, this book is not your mother’s advice book. I find my chapter about finding the right style just as important as my chapter about how to deal with the inlaws. But the main message I want readers to take from the book is that they have more control over their lives than they think. Now, I am at a new stage in my life, one that I worked to create. And whether you are just starting out after college, or a young mom, or a woman on the verge of a midlife crisis, the most important thing to know is that you can always change your tastes, your dreams, and definitely, your pants. *Don’t Wear Sweats Or Your Husband Will Leave You will be published this summer and can be purchased on Amazon.com. You can read Jen’s mind now at dontwearsweats.com LIFESTYLEMAGAZINEGROUP.COM | MAY 2012
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