On social media
May 7, 2020
A few weeks ago, as our world settled into a collective holding of its breath in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, I logged into Facebook without a specific purpose for the first time in a long time. It was one of those decisions that you know in the moment is not good for you, ...
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The Twelfth
July 12, 2019
Mom, I’ve always thought that the “f” in “twelfth” was unnecessary. We don’t use an “f” in any of the other spellings, like tenth, eleventh, thirteenth, or thirtieth. I remember when I was little, the way you would lament the complexities of the English language. “Shouldn’t we say you put your bewt on your fewt ...
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Sixty-third
June 5, 2019
Dear Mama, Happy birthday. You would have been 63 today. You would have hated being in your 60s, I’m sure. Still, I think you would have aged well given the chance. I hadn’t realized how little I have written here because I have written here, I just haven’t published. This blog has 85 published posts, ...
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Grown ups come back
May 14, 2019
I dropped the overfull basket of clean clothes onto the floor with a plop. It was overflowing with laundry that I had washed a second time because it had been clean on the couch and made its way to the living room floor over and over before we could get a chance to fold and ...
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Don’t call it a comeback
March 31, 2019
The bearings on the running dryer a few feet away from me are going bad, and the machine is loud. The front-load washer was “repaired” a couple of months ago with a brand new seal to replace the cracked old one, but it still leaks, and a trickle of water makes its way to the ...
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Hot Wired – Part II
September 2, 2017
This is a multi-part post. You can read the first part here. The first time I had a needle inserted into my spine, I had been in labor for 20 hours and had already dilated almost to a 9. I had been in hard labor for several hours, and had the sustainable sensation that my ...
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Hot Wired – Part I
September 1, 2017
This is a multi-part post. You can read the second part here. Just before Christmas last year, I was scheduled to take a trip for work to visit our main office in the D.C. area. I would be traveling with a colleague/friend and his partner, and we would meet another colleague/friend at the airport, where ...
Read postunusual cases
April 8, 2017
The scale let out a beep that seemed louder and longer than necessary. What if I wanted to discreetly weigh myself? The thing might as well have stood up on two feet, strutted out of the bathroom with its hands on its hips, and bellowed down the stairs, “LARDO PUT ON SOME POUNDS!!!” 177.4 pounds. Four pounds ...
Read postFrom a flawed daughter to an imperfect mother
April 7, 2017
It has been 3 years, 8 months, 26 days since you left this world. Our lives are so full up with grief that it’s hard to recall what it was like before. And my life is now overflowing with the love of a little boy who makes my heart explode into glittery confetti every single ...
Read postTonic immobility
February 3, 2017
For two weeks after the election, I walked around in a thick haze of confusion and grief. I grieved for the nation I thought we were, for the terror that many people I care about were now facing, for the uncertainty of the four years that lay ahead. We need to give him a chance! People ...
Read postCongrats, you made it to the end! Once more with feeling.