Category: beauty
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The Thing About First Birthday Parties
They’re for the adults. Evidence: coolers of Coronas over ice, an ice bucket with Chardonnay, potato salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, fruit salad, salad salad. I mean, it’s even acceptable for the birthday girl to sleep through her own party. How’s work? Any plans for vacation? Did you hear about all that flooding? Small talk…
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M(r)s. Jogger
I spend my days watching people. Yes, I recognize that this sounds creepy, but I assure you, it’s nothing like that creepster watching kids at the playground that Netflix would turn into a documentary that goes viral. I watch with innocence and wonder, marveling and curiosity. I watch to learn how to live and breathe…
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On Singing in the Shower
It’s a mysterious thing, the brain, the way it stores things up like song lyrics and then fires them straight to the heart when we least expect it. Right when we need the lyrics the most. Right in the middle of trying to clean ourselves up. Maybe the song was there all along. Read more…
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Summers at the Lake: Why We Talk About Leaving
It seems we ask about plans for leaving mid-bend and swing on the summer’s first cannonball off the wooden dock. We’re handing over the SPF30, Can you get my back?, and it has yet to soak in before we ask, And when are you leaving?, condensation barely pooling on our defrosting cans in the North…
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There Are Things I Need to Tell You
My waiter, he asked how old I was in reference to the round of margaritas for the table of guac lovers, and so I replied, “27.” My friends, they turned to me quickly and corrected, “Ash, you are 28.”
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The Fear of Flying
Last night, I had two revelations: 1) I am out of Stress Relief tea, and 2) I can’t stop thinking about the young girl on the plane. She wore black chucks with low bright purple socks, hair in a high ponytail, glasses like the ones I wear before bed, and a shirt covered in…
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On needing less, less, less
I hesitate to bold this title on the page, wishing to change the default of all uppercase, on this journey for more and more quiet. You see, I’ve recently discovered minimalism, handed the key to a secret world. People out there think this recipe can save them, that trimming down will cut the hefty heartbreak…
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The End of a Winter Journal
I wonder if it’s worth counting how many mornings over the last four months I scribbled about watching the pink sunrise while listening to the coffee drip from the kitchen just behind me. Each time, I wrote it as if it was a new thought, a new sight, a new sound. And yet, there’s nothing…
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Do you know how to count it all joy?
I saw a man fishing at the lake yesterday. He wore black knee-high boots and stood in the water that came about halfway up his boots. I bet the water felt cold, as we’ve barely kicked the frost in Maryland. He just kept standing there in his baggy khakis draped over his boots, holding his…
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How to cancel your pity party
I used to babysit a little boy who would say (on repeat during his Cars movie obsession), “Oh no! Tow Mater’s stuck in the mud! Stuck in the mud! Stuck in the mud!” And it reminds me of the emails I receive from readers all over the world. I’m stuck in the mud… I’m stuck in the…
Ashley Fenker 