Essays, opinions and rants
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 […]
It’s absurd, standing at the grocery store checkout and repeatedly thanking the cashier for cashiering, only to have him or her either a) ignore me and continue conversing with fellow employees, b) grumpily grunt “uh huh” in return, or c) gaze at me mutely with […]
This week’s onset of kids’ summer vacation (onslaught is more accurate) does not remind me of the summers of my generation, which were 12 weeks of completely unscheduled time. Summer looked like nothingness back then, in a good way. We spent 12 hours a day […]