When I was growing up, I sat at our dining room table and wrote big books with crayon pictures. I wrote stories about girls and cats and snow picnics. I had a thing for the snow picnic, the idea of a basket under a tree, blanket spread out on the snow captured my imagination for [...]
February 11, 2013
In the NYT’s section, Modern Love, Caroline Leavitt, summarized her come to tortoise-Buddha experience with dating. She chose time by herself over time spent contorting herself, AKA betrayal of self, into a desirable partner. She opted out, and welcomed in, Minne, the tortoise: Every night I would take Minnie out of the tank [...]
January 25, 2013
When you first click on the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer and notice that there are 2,436 customer reviews it certainly sends out a signal to pay attention–and pay attention quick. First, I didn’t even realize banana slicers existed (and I am not out of the loop on singular-use kitchen utensils, okay. I have a hand-held [...]
December 3, 2012
Guest Post by Stephanie Lazenby As a parent I hold the key to many secrets, like the Tooth Fairy, what a mortgage is and where babies come from. Santa is the biggest secret of all. But now there is a new character being heaped onto to the pile of Christmas make-believe which adds onto my [...]
November 19, 2012
Though I’ve been a vegetarian since I was about 10, and have no interest in eating turkey whatsoever, I’ve always wanted to host Thanskgiving at my house. And since my sister-in-law, who usually hosts a beautiful Thanksgiving every year, called it quits on the holiday–after being out of power for almost two weeks, she and [...]
November 16, 2012
On Teenager Island, rituals of bed and bath and books are no longer. All that remains of Unicorn-Lollipop-Toddler- Island, are ghosts of your children in the curls of a four-year old girl, or in the hand of a boy, hidden inside his father’s palm. When parenting on Teenager Island there are a few essential items: [...]
October 3, 2012
My dearest Barack: If you’d just go to couple’s therapy with me, I think we could work this out. But in case you won’t, busy running for president and all, I’ll just outline some of the bigger points we need to address: A. I don’t like being called sweetie in front of millions of people. [...]
September 10, 2012
Last Sunday, my sister, my thirteen-year old nephew, my fifteen-year old Sadie-girl, and my forty-something-something self, went apple picking. But a man wearing an apron stopped us before we could wander into the sweet humid orchards. Apron-man’s message? We would have to take a hayride and hand over fifteen dollars cash before any picking. No [...]
August 27, 2012
I hadn’t heard of social suicide until the same child who invented pussy up, told me she could not ride the bike she’d saved for, because her helmet didn’t “go” with the bike. The long coveted bike was a powder blue cruiser; a-girl-on-the-way-home -from-the-beach, hair loose, a sandy-bare feet-riding-bike. The handle bars begged for a [...]
July 12, 2012
I pulled my back out on my date with the A-Hole from Bridesmaids. You know, the Jon Hamm character? A perfect storm of vanity and self-consciousness converged on a bench, when I tried to make my bare legs (100 percent humidity had me in shorts) look their best. I alternated between crossing them (bad for [...]
"A thoughtful, provocative look at the not-so-pretty and the sometimes-out-there sides of parenthood."--Kristen Kemp, Baristakids.com
March 18, 2013
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