I love to travel, try new foods, ingest caffeine, and watch political news coverage. A psychologist by training trying to bring a little common sense to it all.
For the past three weeks, I have been slowly, methodically erased. Not existentially (though give it time), but technologically. First, my laptop camera at home blinked out. No warning. No flicker of rebellion. Just gone. A quiet resignation from the land of Zoom squares and forced eye contact. […]
There are certain shows you don’t watch so much as you drift into. Usually late at night. Usually when your brain has waved a tiny white flag and said, “Sure, fine, whatever you put on now becomes a dream.” Enter Hollywood Demons, a series that feels like it […]
There was a time, not long ago, although it now feels like it existed in sepia tones, when dinner was just dinner. A plate, a fork, maybe a passive-aggressive comment about who didn’t unload the dishwasher, and if you were lucky, a moment of connection wedged somewhere between […]
There are signs in life that feel metaphorical such as “yield,” “merge,” “detour ahead” and then there are signs that are so oddly specific they feel like a joke the universe is playing on us. Case in point. There is a very real sign at Boulders Beach in […]
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind. My birthday is coming up. Which I have subtly, delicately, with the grace of a foghorn reminded certain people about. Not because I need a parade. (Although, let’s be clear, I would not decline a parade.) But because […]
There is a purpose for everyone you meet. I know. It sounds like something you’d find cross-stitched on a pillow next to a suspiciously calm fern. Stay with me. Because some people do not enter your life gently. They arrive like a pop quiz you didn’t study for, […]
“It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet.” Ah, Ernest. Sir. You really woke up and chose violence with that one. Because here I am, not yet sixty (thank you very much), and already deeply aware that the second half of […]
There are wrinkles you earn through laugh lines, sun-kissed memories, and the faint crease of “I have lived.” And then there are the other wrinkles. The ones brought to you by that person. You know the one. Actually, you probably know three. A family member who calls only […]
Somewhere in upstate New York, Syracuse University looked at its course catalog (apparently the academic equivalent of a hoarder’s attic) and said, with admirable calm, “This no longer sparks enrollment.” Eighty-four majors. Gone. Or paused. Or gently escorted to the existential waiting room where discontinued things go to […]
Apparently, the youths (yes, I said it, the youths) have discovered something groundbreaking. Revolutionary. Positively cutting-edge. It’s called Nonnamaxxing. Which, for those of us who have been busy answering emails while brushing our teeth and silently spiraling, is the idea that if you live like an Italian grandmother […]
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