Essays, opinions and rants
I got some hate mail. Hate email. Which was weirdly exciting for a second. A stranger wrote to me about my blog! (Most blog commentary and correspondence is from people I know either IRL or through mutual friends.) Any pleasure I had at being apparently widely […]
Remember our cheery/self-righteous plan for underscheduling this summer? So tragicomical in hindsight. Whit had a blast scootering around the neighborhood, jumping on random trampolines and inviting herself to swim and stay for dinner in other people’s homes; that was fine. Jace, though, was largely morose […]
“What are the kids doing this summer?” It’s an innocent, ubiquitous, small-talky question, though one I usually forget to ask anyone. Maybe that’s subconscious. When the question is directed at me, I tense up, in a subversive-bordering-on-criminal way. Mildly stage-frightened, I lead with the most […]
Dear Dave, I hope you’re well and have the palmettos under control. Your recent essay in the Wall Street Journal was a delight, and your dog Lucy sounds like an abundantly qualified life coach. But it saddened me to think of you feeling lonely at […]
I fell down the rabbit fur-lined rabbit hole. By the second day of braving crowds to see new movies being screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I was hooked to the point of beginning work on my own film script. Here’s what I’ve got […]
The news coverage has been alarming. Everything sounds dire. Locals are quoted saying they’re stockpiling groceries and holing up in their homes or leaving the area entirely. They’re using the word Armageddon. It starts tomorrow. My heart races (in a stressed out way, not an excited […]
It has been our tradition for the past decade to stay home on New Years Eve. The night of champagne, lasagna, chocolate cake and a family movie feels like a warm embrace at the finish line after the Fall-of-the-Roman-empire-meets-Mardi Gras-meets-Iron Man that our Decembers inevitably […]
Well, 2019, this was not how I planned to start our relationship. Not at all. My visions for us included skiing, snowshoeing, yoga, a return to veggie-centric and healthful dinners after a month of cheese and cookie dough. Writing. Reading. House organization. Cleaning and purging. […]
The ninth-grader and I were walking the dog in our new neighborhood. It was mid-30s and sunny. Near our house, a neighbor we’d never seen was clearing brush on his hillside wearing nothing but hiking shorts and boots: Unusual. When we were within earshot, I […]
First, we packed. That’s not true. First, we pulled the mental trigger to do the thing we had long considered. Then we wandered through the house for weeks with imposter syndrome, like the couple in Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road who insist to themselves and others […]