If I ever have my own ad agency, I’m going to call it 7th Bear. Here’s why: I’m gonna tell you a little story. Once there was a great big pregnant bear. And after a painful labor, she gave birth to seven baby bears. So she was very tired. And she looked at her seven babies, and they were all gooey and slimy with afterbirth. And … Continue reading The Seventh Bear
About two years ago I performed at The Jukebox, a storytelling/karaoke series run by my good friends Steve Jacobs, Margaret Lyons, and Steve Heisler. The topic of the evening was parenthood, and while the story I told isn’t the kind of thing Hallmark cards are made of, it is a love letter to my daughter, and so I thought I’d share it today. Happy Mother’s Day, … Continue reading Unexpectedly Expecting
Look, I’m going to tell you a story about tampons, all right? I got my period today — hooray! And I mean that genuinely. I have always been glad to see my period. Back in my youth because it meant I wasn’t pregnant, and more recently because it means I am not in menopause. Circle of life! And so it was with the satisfaction of a job … Continue reading Where’s Waldo?
My husband, Jonathan, and I both had the kind of childhoods where we were left to look out for ourselves a lot. Not because we weren’t loved. We were, very much, and also well provided for. But in the houses where we were raised, there were larger issues that needed attention, and those concerns took priority. When I was a little girl, my mother was … Continue reading Grown ups
Today marks the debut of a new feature here on the blog, called “What should I eat while I watch that movie?” These aren’t movie reviews or re-caps, per se, although I will tell you what I thought of the movie, because talking about movies is a thing I love to do. Mostly it’s a helpful guide to pairing drinks, food and the occasional prescription … Continue reading What Should I Eat While I Watch That Movie: Blue Valentine
I read a lot of poetry, mostly for pleasure, but also because I find the way poets use language to be extremely instructive. As a copywriter, it seems everyone is always telling me to make the copy shorter. Whenever this makes me grouchy, I go read ee cummings or William Carlos Williams; then I get over myself and make the copy shorter. So I read because it … Continue reading Sometimes, what you need to do is read a poem: Evening Primrose by Amy Greacen
My husband, Jonathan, and I joke that our 7-year-old daughter, Emerson, is me in a him package. In so many ways, it’s true. She’s inherited all of his gorgeousness — the tall, lean, muscular body type, the huge hazel eyes that are mostly green, the creamy skin that turns bronze at the slightest lick of sun, the distractingly full mouth (honestly, I live with such … Continue reading Some Thoughts on Father’s Day, and Spelling Tests
I had breakfast the other morning with a pal who is almost exactly half my age. She is 21, and I am 44, but despite this gap between us we are genuinely friends. We share a bespectacled, busty brunette sensibility — a particular kind of hyper-responsibility and flirty trouble-making — along with a love for fat novels, greasy spoon diners, and Pat Benatar. We joke that it’s a … Continue reading Be More Stupid
I have a complicated relationship with Medusa. Of course, Medusa herself is a complicated girl — with an identity that spans classical myth, castration anxiety (Really Freud? Really?), and angry feminism. She’s been shadowing me forever, it seems. For one thing, my hair is a mop of spiral curls, and for a time, by certain people, I was referred to as having “Medusa Head.” It was meant as a joke, … Continue reading Medusa Got A Bad Rap
For years, I have been talking about writing a book. Talking about it and thinking about it, and wondering if I could, and what it should be about, and if anyone would read it, and if people would be mad at me if I did. I’ve made several starts at this, taking classes and trying to publish stories, blogging (very) occasionally, reading out now and … Continue reading Books & Letters
Working Without a Net 