Welcome to “Oh, So Many Balls,”
Welcome to “Oh, So Many Balls,” a light-hearted commentary on the oh, so many balls women juggle every day while keeping their sanity - and sense of humor - in a testosterone driven world.
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Hello, my name is Annie Sokoloff and I’m the author of this column. My mantra: “70 is the new 50” and while I’ve led a very full life, complete with many ups and downs, the word “retirement” is not in my vocabulary.
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A little about me. I was born a coal miner’s granddaughter in the early 1950s in a very small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. Like many women of my era, I married right out of college, foregoing my dream of pursuing a law degree in the process. In the many years since, I’ve followed a variety of career paths, each enjoyable in their own right including writing daily stock market reports for the Dow Jones and Reuters newswires, working in both the retail and wholesale side of the travel industry and designing and selling my own line of dresses in the bridal industry.
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Like many women, I’ve experienced the pain and upheaval of divorce. As a single mom, I tried my best to keep the kitchen table even while raising a teenage son who has since grown into a wonderful man and father. In the mid 90s, I was lucky to find and marry the true love of my life (we met on a wrong phone number, but that’s another story for another time.) To say the least it has been quite the ride!
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My life has been enriched by the many women I’ve met, both young and old, some with similar interests and some not. But no matter the age or background, I’ve come to know that at our core, women have one common thing - we deal with stuff. We handle kids, husbands, partners and bosses. We do laundry, prepare meals, drive car pool and manage anything thrown our way, keeping it all together while handling “everything, everywhere all at once.” We’re sometimes tired and many times cranky, but we do it all - and do it well - because we are pretty darned “kickass” and that's just how we roll.
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I began writing this column because women - all women - need to be reminded of just how competent and capable they are and because I want them to know that there are many other women going through similar experiences. Mostly, I’m writing this because sometimes we need to lighten up and laugh a little, even if it’s at ourselves.
I hope you enjoy the columns. I’d love to hear from you if you do and welcome hearing about your experiences and suggestions for more things to write about. In the meantime, I’ll just look around - life provides so much fodder.