Essays, opinions and rants
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 […]
We are on the road. In the car with us for the 5-day, 2400-mile expedition: The dog His bed, blanket, food and water bowls, poop bags and 2 leashes An iPod, Spotify subscription and half-dozen actual CDs 3 lampshades, one bike wheel and an Adirondack […]
Note: Greetings after a medically imposed hiatus (details below). This post first appeared March 22 on Grub Street‘s writing blog deaddarlings.com After a head injury, a lifelong word-lover – a voracious reader and dedicated writer – is forbidden by her doctor to read or write. […]
A friend I’m not often in touch with emailed recently, leading to an exchange in which she repeatedly called me dog. (“Dog, I owe you an email,” etc.) She’s from Fresno. No one in Cohasset calls me dog. Actually, no one else in Fresno calls […]
This is 1.5 holidays late, but that’s how we’re rolling at the Moonlight Mile HQ, where we have been very busy proofreading homework, fulfilling other writing obligations and making tons of Thanksgiving food. From scratch. Halloween provided a candy bowl of opportunities to reflect on […]
Social media, for all its pitfalls and unintended consequences, does have positive aspects, and armchair travel is one. But filtered, enhanced, excessively hash-tagged glamour shots from one-percenter locales make me squirm. They bring back memories. When I was growing up in California, our neighbors flew to […]
What is meditating? Seems like an elusive thing, though one growing in popularity. Meditation references are everywhere, along with studies about its benefits reported almost daily. Presumably there’s also actual meditating occurring. Like yoga, which I’m getting the hang of even more slowly than skiing (and that […]