Our cats have full roaming access to the whole house, and yet, all they want is a deep dive into the kitchen sink. We spray the water bottle, stomp our feet, clap our hands, put on stern voices, NO! GET! DOWN! BAD!, we've tried it all. J even became the blanket monster, draping the fuzzy [...]
Dear Friend, I know I joked that I wouldn't do it, wouldn't join the herds baking bread. But, can you blame me? It was Easter Sunday, after all, and I needed to see something rise. It should give you hope that hearts can change. My mother-in-law texted me that there's nothing like warm bread fresh [...]
Birthdays turn her to mush (she's a memory hoarder). Today, she reflects on her twenties, saying goodbye to the decade her old soul has spent too many late flipping-and-flopping nights wishing away. Did her circumference widen with each new ring of growth? Did she learn to number her days? Sometimes she remembers, other times she [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Something beautiful happened in Baltimore yesterday: thermometers reached 78 degrees on February 21—a date usually blanketed with snow. Naturally, I found a path near water to walk at lunch and stopped for post-Valentine’s-ridiculously-on-sale flowers on the way home. Today I put on a shirt that looks exactly like a shirt would look if the [...]
On one end of my street, construction workers are knee-deep in building a multi-million dollar library. On the other end, a multi-million dollar fire station will soon have firefighters sliding down the poles they are staking in the ground. It is a mess. Literally. As I've walked by the construction zones on casual strolls [...]
Yesterday, I taught a writing class. We flipped through dogeared pages of Bird by Bird together on a screened-in back porch that overlooked a wooded lot with trees changing colors on me. We waited for the french press to brew our Starbucks medium roast, then wrapped cold fingers around steaming mugs as the temperature dropped. [...]
They asked me, “What brought you back?” “Just to visit,” I said. “Just to see you.” (Did I need a better reason?) This weekend, I had a few options for reunions: high school, college, or grad school. I nearly vomited at the Facebook invite for a ten-year high school reunion. Somehow reliving those years [...]
