Where's My Hat?

For the first time since I started doing Mama Kat writing prompts, I blew off the random number generator's suggestion of #2:  The biggest Halloween trick or prank you ever pulled.  My holiday prank history involves only one thing (I was a very good girl as a teenager!):  a late night relocation of the nativity scene from the First Baptist Church of Lake Butler's lawn to the youth director's front yard.  He was not amused (but I think baby Jesus appreciated the change of scenery).  More importantly, #4 (Share a photo that represents how you see yourself) gives me the chance to share via my blog a fundamental clash I have in my head.  Between this:

and this: 

I couldn't find the perfect picture to demonstrate the un-Mary Richards-like aspects of my life.  This one is the best I can do - yes I was camping, but the crocs, the unironed "whatever was available to throw on that also fit" ensemble, the "it'll do" hair (under a hat), and the lack of makeup are far too often the "me" I present to the world these days.   

Having Mary Richards as my professional role model during those formative years of ages 6-13, I concocted a "future me" vision complete with a great wardrobe, a spacious (and always clean) apartment, vivacious friends, and an upwardly mobile job. 

Wardrobe-wise, my clothes are as often held together by safety pins as not; my house is in CHAOS, my friends are vivacious (1 out of 4 is a start!), and I perch precariously on that teeter totter called family-life balance daily.

Being a mom is what has been the most important thing to me as an adult.  But when I go back to New York City, and walk the bustling streets among the career women who look so purposeful and directed, even though for all I know they are going home to empty, tiny, lonely apartments and downing pints of Ben and Jerry's, I still crave some "hat in the air moments" just for me.

What kind of "hat in the air" moment are you still looking for?