Aug 25, 2021Member-onlyCounting“The number will not be high. It is going to be pretty low.” I find it funny this has to be stated both ways, as if my own personal IQ is not high, and pretty low, and I wouldn’t understand this news said only once; or, as if this news…MWC7 min readMWC7 min read
Jun 22, 2021Member-onlyBack On The GridI keep a paper calendar. I like the layout where you can see the whole month at one time, the kind that gives you two square inches dedicated to any one day. Every November, I’d buy my refill in person at Staples. Cashiers often assumed I was a teacher, asking…Writer7 min readWriter7 min read
Published in Be Open·May 9, 2021Member-onlyA Returning StudentI enrolled in an online writing class recently. I’d signed up for a real world one last winter and considered its cancelation a gift of the pandemic. I’d been brave enough to sign up but never had to be brave enough to go. But as the months of homeschooling ticked…Writing Life9 min readWriting Life9 min read
Jan 30, 2021Member-onlyI Am Still MeA few weeks ago, my youngest probably flushed a toy down the toilet. It all happened fast — he had a clutch of PJ Mask figurines as he ran toward the bathroom, singing the theme song of same at top volume for the uncountable time of the day. My oldest…Parenting7 min readParenting7 min read
Nov 27, 2020Member-onlyAs Boring as It Should BeI’ve come to be a big fan of the uneventful. I’ve already lived a highly eventful life for a block of many years. It wasn’t great — because it wasn’t the shiny, glamorous kind where the events were big parties or celebrations. It was the downtrodden and stressful kind, where…Parenting10 min readParenting10 min read
Oct 23, 2020Member-onlyGone to Hawaii in His MindWe’re packing for Hawaii today. Again. We have been for days. Make that weeks. And we’re pretty busy with it. We’ve gathered everything one could need in a tropical setting: toy cars, a lovey, a calculator my son’s bestowed with magical remote control powers (he can make you age backwards(!)…Pandemic10 min readPandemic10 min read
Published in Pandemic Diaries·Sep 9, 2020Member-onlyThe Give and Take of the 2020 College Drop offIt’s 3am and she’s screaming for the third time of the night. I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong as a new mom, but whatever I was doing was creating a real monster of a sleep outlier. Everyone in the mom’s groups I dabbled-in-but-wouldn’t-officially-join had a bedtime-book-tuck-in-and-not-a-peep-til-7am kind of…Parenting16 min readParenting16 min read
Jul 28, 2020Member-onlyA Virus by Any Other NameWhen a bunch of random adults start calling me Mom, I know I’m somewhere I don’t want to be — namely, the hospital. It’s funny because the first time this happened to me was during the birth of our first child. Mom, it’s time to push. Mom, she’s beautiful. Mom…Covid 1923 min readCovid 1923 min read
Published in Pandemic Diaries·Jun 16, 2020Member-onlyA Peek Hole to Unabstracted Fear“Oh, my dog has seizures too.” More than one person, upon learning my youngest has severe epilepsy, has shared this with me. To say this attempt to relate has landed poorly with me would be a gross understatement. At the time this was often enough offered in conversation, my son…Parenting11 min readParenting11 min read
May 20, 2020Member-onlyThe Stockholm Syndrome of Sheltering in Place“LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” It’s the summer of 2019 and this sudden yelling rips me out of sleep at 2:11am. It takes me a minute of sweaty panic to get my bearings and realize there isn’t an actual emergency, the kind I’ve had a decade-long career waking up to with my younger…Parenting15 min readParenting15 min read
