Category: Midwestern

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

20 Years in the Making

It was the summer of 1997. I was 12, and just about to enter dreaded middle school (eek, I know). Old enough to stay home during the day while my parents were at work, and make plans for sleepovers with my girlfriends, and watch all the VH1 & MTV I wanted. I liked to watch the Top 10 Videos regularly on both. This was before the Carson Daly and his Total Request Live (TRL) days. It was the glory days of the 90’s music scene, especially for a 12-year-old girl, with hard-hitting female rock anthem singles like […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Camping III

Again, we were Collaborative Camping one summer in my youth, up nearby one of the zillions of lakes in Wisconsin, with my parents, and next door neighbors and their three boys. The three boys and I were so close that they were more like my brothers.

We had been camping for a few days, so our tents and site were pretty well established at this point, but one morning it began to rain. And rain, and rain, and rain […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Camping II

Let’s continue on the Camping thread, and journey to our second and third Collaborative Camping trips, in Eagle River, Wisconsin. We found a spot that we loved: nestled in the corner of the camping property, far enough away from most other sites, (We had to drive down a hill to access our site, and at one point, all the kids were out running an errand with the boy’s Dad. He stopped at the top of the hill and said, get out and HANG ON! […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Camping I

Much like the typical Midwestern family, my family went camping a lot when I was younger. I loved camping and a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was a Girl Scout starting at the age of 5, so my inner adventurer was alive and well, but also because I was an only child who grew up with a house full of boys next door. […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Springfield

Since I returned from Core Peer Support Training, I’ve enrolled in the Certified Recovery Support Specialist Competency Training, which takes place over three days, spanning three months, in Springfield. I pack my lunch, and a backpack of class supplies and trek over there for the day. It’s about an hour and a half away from our house, so it makes for an ok day trip. Pretty fool-proof, right? – WRONG – […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Funnies

Martin and I get the Sunday paper delivered each week. I look forward to pulling it apart section by section and learning more about the new community we live in. I try to read it all, including corn and crop reports and University of Illinois business (FOREVER A BUCKEYE!!!) and save the store advertisements and comics for last.

When I was a kid, I only read two sections of the paper. The two most important sections of the paper, by my “kid standards” were: […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Penny Park & Grace

Over the past few years, I have come to the realization that I have been a feminist for quite some time. I’ve seen and pointed out the inequality that my gender has afforded me on many occasions that are only recently coming back to my memory. I’m fairly certain this has been the case since before Kindergarten… Allow me to explain: […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Peer Support Training

As some of you might have read in my last post, I spent last week up in Chicago taking the Peer Support Specialist Core Training. Holy cow; what a nearly indescribable week it was!

Day 1: There were 22 of us, with two instructors. We spent the morning talking about the definitions of the Peer Support Specialist (which we fine-tuned throughout the week) and shared our […]

Written by hopefulmidwesterner

Bump in the Road

FIRST OFF LET’S START HERE The last post I made took a lot out of me. I didn’t realize how much, until two weeks went by and I hadn’t posted again. I didn’t feel like I had much to say, especially after what was said in Not-A-Mother’s Day. I worried that I wouldn’t have enough to say for a substantial follow-up. Truth is, at the moment I feel like I don’t. And I’m sorry. NOW […]