title 9 enough

i do love getting my Title 9 catalog in the mail...and i had an epiphany this week: i don't have to carry a whole change of clothes when i bike to work.  leggings, boots, dress & scarf, sling a messenger bag with lunch packed inside across your shoulder and voila!  ready to pedal AND look professional in the classroom.  Title 9 models have such interesting descriptors by them. "genetic physicist, mother of two" (photo of fit woman with glossy hair rock climbing) or "guide dog volunteer, firefighter" (photo of woman in little black dress laughing at a coffee stand).  then, there's me, "after school art teacher, bike commuter" (photo of me with paint on my clothes, grease on my legs making dinner in pj's and looking none too glamorous).  i must confess it tempts me to try to be all things:  the wonder woman who makes her own homemade organic ravioli AND sends long snail mail birthday greetings to all her friends and family AND volunteers at the local library AND manages her finances AND practices yoga regularly AND hosts parties in a clean house while grading papers AND

eats homegrown pesticide-free carrots (while posing next to a farmer's market stand in that little black dress). even typing that makes me tired.  so one week i might really focus on special projects at school but maybe not exercise as much as i'd like.  another week my house is spic and span but maybe i didn't get to my pile of books to read.  still other weeks maybe i host a party but fall asleep in the middle of doing the dishes.  and then i think, "go easy on yourself, you ARE a Title 9 woman, you're REAL!" it's about a life well lived, people well loved and time well spent; an overall life balance, not perfect days or weeks.  for all my trying, i will never be one of those people who always have all ten fingernails at the same time--art is too demanding on the hands--or who never have to have a single hair picked off of their  shoulder (human or feline), you know, the people whose sweaters never seem to get fuzz balls?!  yes, i will probably spill coffee on my new scarf...so i want to find out, thinking of yourself and all the amazingly REAL women you know, the ones who sometimes lose their temper or forget to go to the bank or who--God forbid--make a frozen meal from time to time, who would you nominate to be a Title 9 woman and why?