Part 3: Receipts, Proof, Timeline, Screenshots
When You’ve Got the Receipts But Still Can’t Return the Experience
This is the third story in my four-part series, Tidy Up My Life: 2.0—a deep clean of the professional baggage I brought home after thirteen years in one place. If you missed Part 1 (The Devil Wears a Necktie) or Part 2 (Sorting With The Enemy), start there. This installment is about assessing what’s worth holding onto—and what’s long overdue for the trash bin. It’s about clearing the mental clutter, confronting the digital debris (think: receipts, proof, timelines, screenshots), and doing the real work of moving forward.
If this series resonates with you, I’d so appreciate you leaving a comment.
🎧 Want to hear this story in my own voice? An audio version, narrated by yours truly, is available for paid subscribers. Paid subscribers: You’ll find the audio and video just below the iconic RHOSLC photo.
There are some stories you tell with a wink. Others demand “receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots.”
This is one of those stories.
And it falls squarely in the blah category. Not because it lacks drama—on the contrary, it’s Real Housewives-level messy—but because it left me feeling flat. Deflated. Exhausted. It’s the story of an employee (hi, me) who asked for a workplace modification, was granted the request, and then watched it slowly dissolve, like a pile of paper left out in the rain.
When I was drafting my manuscript for Tidy Up Your Life, I gave up nonfiction reading and scripted TV in an attempt to protect my author voice. That’s when my cousin Shannon introduced me to the Bravo-verse. I started with the Real Housewives Salt Lake City, and by the time the Season 4 finale aired in January 2024, I was hooked. In a moment that should be taught in Reality TV Writing 101, Heather Gay pulled out her receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots to expose a castmate who had been secretly blogging about the group under the alias “Reality Von (Tea)se.”
It was theatrical. Cinematic. Chilling. And it struck a little too close to home.
