If someone asked me to come up with a title for the recurring theme for my life, it would be Oh, Shit. Apologies to my mother and grandmother, who will eventually read this.

I get opportunities and I take them, and then eventually find myself thinking oh, shit. This applies to every job and internship I’ve ever had, the times I’ve had to perform any type of public speaking, each time I found myself gestating a child, and pretty much any time I’ve had to either meet a deadline or do something new. Right now my oh, shit pertains to telling Jill Smokler of Scary Mommy YES, I WOULD LOVE TO SUBMIT SOMETHING BY SEPTEMBER 15 FOR YOU TO INCLUDE IN YOUR LATEST E-BOOK. Yes, please do count me in on this amazing opportunity. Because I would be an idiot to say no thank you, right?

And then it came. The oh, shit.

What am I going to write? And when will I write it? This stuff doesn’t just happen … it’s a process. I have to write when I’m in the mood to, in our man cave where the computer lives, and — oh yeah — small children are afoot. Basically? I think I’ll have to pull a weird few weeks of getting up at 4 a.m. to write before anyone is awake to bother me. It’s for charity, the e-book. The proceeds will go toward feeding families on Thanksgiving, so I’m going to pull it together and write something and then hopefully you guys can help me promote it. What’s the worst that can happen, right?

Even though I’m always in over my head, writing keeps me tethered to something solid; it keeps me afloat. So really, by reading this, you are doing a good deed.

I think we’ve all earned a cookie.

Hard to get much done around here.