This isn’t goodbye

It's time to end this blog as you've known it. It's no secret that the last two years my inspiration dwindled. The problem with writing such a deeply personal blog is that at some point you run out of material. Especially when your material is all about the failures in your life -- be it …

Will a face mask protect me from Attention Whores?

You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.Anne Lamott This has always been my writing mantra. When your entire writing identity is telling embarrassing, painful, raw true stories about your life you have to decide just how many other …

There’s still time for guillotines

I'm not gonna lie -- today is a really sad day. Not only because it's the deadliest day of the COVID-19 outbreak, but because my fears have been realized. Much as I predicted in 2016, there is a substantial chance Trump will be re-elected. Hope is dead. Since 2015 I have been a proud supporter …

Touched by a monkey

Tonight I was looking back through the pictures of my trip to Spain and one jumped out at me as absolutely capturing my mood right now: I had taken a three-hour bus ride at the crack of dawn to visit Gibraltar, just to tick another country off my travel list. But really the main motivation …

Holding on by a string

I've tried to stay upbeat about this pandemic. As I've written previously, there are silver linings to be found in it. And I think most people are finding it to be a much needed forced time to reassess their goals and lives. But I've been rapidly approaching a breaking point in the last couple days. …

Don’t tell me food doesn’t love me

Every birthday I reach a point where I think "I'm old. I need to just accept that I'm old and can't lose weight." And then Jennifer Lopez at 51 rocks a stripper pole at the Super Bowl in a bedazzled G-string and I think maybe I'm underachieving a bit. Not that I'm going to put …

Fear is a four-letter word

What am I afraid of? If you asked me that question a year ago I would have recited a litany of things. Snakes. Drowning. Vampires. Public speaking. Dying alone. Menopause. Finding a dead mouse in my take-out. Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying. Chelsea being relegated. My mother sneaking veal into her meatballs. Saints Matthew, Matthias, Bartholemew, …

Shiny objects in the darkness

I tend to be more New Agey when faced with natural disasters or personal struggles. I'm one who always looks for a life lesson from challenges beyond my control. It's not that I'm a cheerful optimist. I need to solve the problem, even if the only explanation I can construct is something intangible. The COVID-19 …

You say quarantine like it’s a bad thing…

I was born for this Coronavirus crisis. My office is in full-blown panic mode. You can't walk five feet without seeing a bottle of hand sanitizer and a sign warning you not to shake hands, or wash your hands for 20 seconds, cover your mouth when you sneeze, eat your broccoli but don't eat the …

Skin-ny dipping

"Have you ever dated a nudist?" Of all the weird opening messages I've received on a dating site, this wins, hands (or other naked body parts) down. "Sven" was a very attractive Nordic looking paramedic from Long Island. A short 75 minute ferry ride plus 20 minute drive away. That's a bit of a haul …