A 14-year-old and I were talking about boys and it was an interesting conversation. She was explaining to me that boys are weird. And of course, I gave that knowing nod in allegiance with our girl-ness. But then I offered her another explanation and that is think about the boy/girl dynamic from their point of view. I had thought about this earlier when Tin had been watching Toy Story for the first time and Woody…
I have a voice in my head or voices shall I say. They tell me things. For instance, no matter how ahead of the game I remain in my work, these voices tell me it is not enough. No matter how clean my house is, it could always use more. No matter what I’ve done to keep myself in shape, healthy, and fit, my voice tells me that it’s not good enough. These are the…
I’ve spent the last seven days in the trenches of a head cold almost-flu-like disease that Tin had caught at school and suffered one minute of a sniffly nose from and then passed to me in which it became the most infectious disease of the year. I told a friend of mine in California who is a life coach about my subsequent laryngitis and she said, “Laryngitis is when the words are blocked in your…
I went last night to a friend’s fundraiser for girls in Ghana who are unable to go to school. This is part of a long trajectory she has taken in the form of raising money to help women in Ghana. The fundraiser was billed as a Nina Simone evening as Simone worked in clubs to pay for her own classical piano lessons without telling her mother, so with the same fierce determination my friend is…
Friday night was the Lantern Walk at Tin’s Waldorf school. This was his/our third year doing the ritual and it has become so ingrained in him as an annual that he thinks of the Lantern Walk in the same list as Hanukkah, his birthday, his homecoming anniversary, etc. We sing songs and make a paper lantern from the painting that the kids do and then on the night of the Lantern Walk, the kids carry…
My surge in activity landed me with a horrible head cold and laryngitis – thank goodness I’m a writer and not a singer is all I can say. Thursday, I went to see the Robert Glasper Experiment at the newly renovated Civic Theater. And because it was a school night and my babysitter is in high school, I had to leave just as they were warming up. I’m not the only person/parent who has trouble…
I have to remind kick myself every day in order to remember that I don’t know anything because I don’t. When your mind gets anxious, it’s because you are worried about the outcome of something – the trick is you think you know the outcome and you worry, but the truth is that you don’t know it – you haven’t met all the people in the world, you haven’t been to all the places in…
I was sitting on a blanket in the sun today and I was telling a friend how I had developed the art of serial monogamy without missing a beat – yet there were always flashes of time when it was just me. At 20, on a ferry going to Ship Island, I leaned back and watched the Gulf gently toss us to and fro – I was light and giddy and perfectly unattached. At 24,…
Well, it’s happening. I’m coming out of my hibernation, at last. Thursday was Halloween and no one who has a kid may opt to stay home. So in the morning, I dressed my fire breathing dragon for school and let him heat my tea water with his fire breath: Then in the early evening, Tin changed into an astronaut and we ventured over to our old stomping grounds in Faubourg St. John to partake of…
Tomorrow is All Hallow’s Eve, which I heard today has become the second biggest holiday in this country. Considering the amount of decorations that are in front of my house right now, I’d say I’m down. This holiday resonates with me on a much deeper level – other than in my dreaming life, it is the only day that I might come close to those who have passed as the veil between us thins. I…