I Am Dot. Who Are You?

You ever ask “What if?”

Tim Kreider of The New York Times did in this very readable post about the choices we did – and by default didn’t – make in life.

Sure I’ve wondered.

I’ve wondered about Dot in the Alternative.

If Dot in the Here and Now is a stay-at-home mom, wife, part-time editor living in Seattle who hasn’t had a “date night” since July and cannot remember the last weekend she had that did not involve massive laundry and the picking up of toys; then Dot in the Alternative could very possibly be…anything else.

Roving correspondent. Bitchy editor. Happy Hour regular. Frequent Flyer. Noon waker. Singaporean trailblazer. Diaper Genie virgin.

Do I ask the question as an academic exercise to validate my life thus far, or do I ask the question as a desperate attempt at some amateur fantasy?

I don’t know.

Maybe there is a third possibility – Dot in the Next Five Minutes.

The Dot who takes a deep breath, looks at Jay sitting on the couch in the toy-strewn living room, hears a snoring Ruby, ignores her yet-to-be-edited work, takes another deep breath, and thinks, “What a lucky girl I am.”