I don’t have a nickname (unless you count “Stef,” which I do not). I’ve been trying to make “Scully” happen for years now. Alas, just like “fetch,” it’s not going to happen. But when I was very small, I was my father’s Sweet Petunia. And it suited me then, all chubby cheeks and giggles. I’m pretty open about the fact that my relationship with him … Continue reading A Petunia By Any Other Name
I had breakfast with a girlfriend this morning, at a place in Chelsea called The Grey Dog’s Coffee. The Grey Dog’s is the kind of snug, romantic, fairy light-strung coffeehouse where it always feels like it’s raining outside. Chet Baker, or something that wishes it was Chet Baker, plays on the sound system. All the baristas are warm and attractive, and you absolutely would love … Continue reading When she wasn’t looking
There’s been a huge online kerfuffle over the changing of the zodiac, but I couldn’t be happier about it. Until yesterday, I was a Taurus — stubborn, lazy, possessive, materialistic, self-indulging. But also, dependable, persistent, loyal, patient and generous. In many cases, far too loyal, patient and generous. But now I am an Aries — independent, optimistic, enthusiastic and courageous. Still generous. It’s not all … Continue reading Sign of the Times
This is a love story, which begins, as these things so often do, with a (paraphrased) line from The Fantasticks: There is this boy. He’s a man now, but when I knew him, when I loved him, he was a boy. We were teenagers, in the late 1980s, in a suburban town in Westchester, NY. He was good-natured and darkly mischievous, politically active in a … Continue reading Juliet at 41
Working Without a Net 