The shift from Sarcasm to Sass

It's probably best to start by telling you that for me, this year has been all about learning and growing - both personally and professionally. It is 10 a.m. and even as I set out a couple hours ago to write this blog post, I've learned so much about the technology I use to write these posts (more on that in another post).

Funny backup story redirected to sass!

I originally thought today’s post was going to be an incredibly ironic and funny story of how my team and I wasted quite a few hours yesterday because of a mistake I made that, gosh darn it, was easily preventable. As I reflect back, I could continue to beat myself up on the “wasted” time, or I could choose to look at the fact that us all spending the time rebuilding the site back to where it was a few days ago gave me the inspiration and nudge on exactly how to write a post about my favorite tool to back up our WordPress sites, the importance of having backups of backups, AND a perfect unfolding of how to finish this blog post on sarcasm. BONUS!

So why did I shift from the funny backup story to this one? While starting to collect my thoughts about my approach to the funny backup story, I paused to catch up on text messages from the day before. Well, the Universe gave me one of those “you can’t make this shit up” moments to point me back to this blog post in the funniest of ways (read on)!

Choosing the post title

When I have an idea for a post, I often start with a bulleted list of potential blog post titles. I find it helpful for work-related posts to give my staff an easy way to vote on the title that most resonates with them. For personal posts, it allows me to “simmer the sentiment” until I get the clear direction on which way to go.

I had no idea HOW I wanted to talk about my shift from sarcasm when I wrote the first bullet on the list of “potential titles” (which ended up being the only one on the list before I felt the inspiration to start writing). I only knew I needed to write a post on sarcasm because of a recent interaction I had with a dear friend.

What exactly is my shift from sarcasm?

Well, Version 1 of my Hot Mess post had this paragraph:

I was raised in a small town in the Ohio Valley, where it was normal to go out of our way to say mean things to each other. And while I've certainly been known for doing my fair share of cutting people down, it has taken me many years to get to the point where sarcasm is no longer part of my lexicon.

I’ve come to realize that I just don’t enjoy sarcasm any more. I don’t enjoy receiving it and I don’t enjoy dishing it out. Something happened in January to bring awareness of just how much I don’t enjoy dishing it out.

As an example, my cousin and I have a long history of bantering sarcasm back and forth. Instinctively, I saw and immediately seized an opportunity to dive in with some strong sarcasm, calling out my cousin’s “chirping” (as I started calling some of her bantering). About 10 seconds after hitting send on the group text message, I distinctly remember the empty feeling of regret. I will not soon forget how many days I reflected upon that regret.

If you would like to purchase this sassy sheep on a T-shirt from my niece, you can do so here.