The latest dust-up in this distressing election cycle has been Donald Trump’s fat shaming of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado. His comments and attitude are disgusting and demeaning: even if you argue that the “job” of a beauty queen is to stay beautiful, there is no evidence she has ever been anything but. TrumpContinue reading >>
Just before dawn
When I first met my husband, and we were living hours apart and still figuring out if we were going to give it a shot, I woke many mornings around 4:00 am and lay in bed and agonize. (“I’d lie awake and think about the boy, and never even think of counting sheep” to quote theContinue reading >>
Coming out of the dark
I hope I don’t die in the spring. I remember exactly where I was when I had that disconcerting thought. I was driving with the sunroof open through the busiest intersection of my urban neighborhood, looking up at a billboard while the sun glared behind it. The city workers had started putting barrels of flowersContinue reading >>
The shower and the snow
This time last year I was home on medical leave, and my soon-to-be-husband was working morning shifts. He would wake around 2:00 am, which didn’t bother me much since I had nowhere to be. We’d chat before he said goodbye and I’d laze back to sleep, usually rising just before the winter’s late sunrise toContinue reading >>
Reinventing the wheel
When I was a kid I did gymnastics for many years. As with most of my athletic endeavors, I wasn’t very good and I never got much better. I was young enough not to care, my parents were wise enough not to care, and I really liked flopping around on the trampoline. When I startedContinue reading >>