Brenda at MummyTime always makes me laugh. Although we’ve never met (she lives in Australia, for Pete’s sake!) I have the feeling she’d be the life of the party. I imagine she has a big personality. I’m guessing she has one of those loud, infectious laughs that invites you to join in, even if you [...]
Sixteen years ago today — Presidents’ Day 1994, I was watching the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, waiting for the Pitocin drip to work its magic and make a baby fly out of my body like a luge racer.
I wondered: boy or girl? What will he or she be like? Am I ready for this?
Turns [...]
This is what I’m supposed to wear to a party tonight.
I do not have this in my closet. Do you?
In the late ’80s I had a green jacket like the one the model is wearing. I’m thinking at some point in the ’80s or early 1990s I had some baggy pants that could have been [...]
What does one say when the family unit is gathered around the Christmas tree, after having finished a meal, and the matriarch unexpectedly hauls out a circa-1975 Barbie doll trunk and opens it?
Perhaps one keeps quiet for a moment as memories flood the brain. Not recollections of childhood innocence, but those of a more devious [...]
I base many of my parenting decisions today on things I did as a teenager.
That is why my almost-16-year-old lives in a box in the basement.
Well, not yet. Soon. She’s going on her first big night out with another teenager in a car. Alone.
I’m worried. I sound like my mother did in 1980 when a [...]
To: Sibling in town for the holidays
From: Your stressed-out sister
Re: Our lack of any quality time together other than over pre-Thanksgiving dinner cocktails and post-dinner mumblings between pie and coffee
Relationships are a two-way street. While you are the out-of-towner, remember it is your vacation time and not mine. You happened to visit during a time [...]
This week I had a revelatory moment. It struck me as I was walking into a building and caught a glimpse of my reflection in the plate glass. I saw a smartly dressed woman with a laptop bag slung over her shoulder.
“Where have you been the last three years?” I asked the mirror image as [...]
It’s been a busy stretch, with many events converging upon a three-week period. I’m behind in my reading of other sites. I’m slow in developing posts. I have another award to acknowledge. I have outdoor chores and indoor duties. I have co-op preschool responsibilities and freelance work deadlines.
On the weekends, rather than play catch-up, I’ve [...]
It doesn’t happen often.
But, it happens.
It’s not going to stop.
Ever.
“Excuse me,” is how it begins. When I have a loaf of bread in hand, examining ingredients and calorie counts. When I’m loading my car in a windswept parking lot. When I’m at the community center watching my girl leap and jump and twirl.
“Would you mind [...]
Today is the eighth anniversary of 9/11. Each of us has our own distinct memory of how it unfolded. There are two things I think about every year on this day: The first is to remember all those who went to work that day and died before lunch. The second is to recall the only person [...]
