Refuge
An Interlude
More posts
It's Okay to be a Dilettante
I was 19 or 20, in college, when I showed enough competence to pass an introductory piano class. I was about to turn 40 when I got a keyboard to learn on at home, a beginner once again. In between, I forgot everything and ignored my inner artist while vaguely
Monster Within
Sometimes I’m a much meaner mom than I want to be, or even thought I could be. When my coping mechanisms are out of order and my son defies a request one too many times, or is just being generally impossible, I react in ways that I’d never
The Spiral
Being a mom means holding it together.
Being a woman means holding it together.
I am usually good at holding it together. People have told me that I seem like a bastion of calm and a person who has it figured out. Probably because I did well in school (“gifted
NYC Food Memories
Like many folks who grow up seeing it only on television, I’ve always had a thing for New York City. For years I longed to visit, but as a West Coast suburbanite without much extra money, I had to settle for San Francisco and Seattle to get my fix
Girl With a Book
I’m naturally a planner, but life gets busy for all of us, and this year I had some shopping to do on the Saturday before Christmas. I waited until I thought mall traffic had died down, then grabbed my coat and prepped my husband for what time I would
The Most Distressing Sound: Having an Asthmatic Child
We have just made it through another bout with our son’s asthma. If I had to guess at all the things that trigger his symptoms, I’d have to go with just about any natural phenomenon: weather changes, laughter, exercise, dust particles, nighttime. (I have actually read that chronic
Christmas (De)lights
In one of the suburban houses I grew up in, my bedroom was on the second floor overlooking a cul-de-sac. Across from the cul-de-sac was a barren field, and beyond that was a concrete wall that bordered a busy shopping center. There was a Bel Air
Parental Control
Nobody warned me that being a parent is really hard for a control freak. But then, only some people very close to me would see me as controlling. The archetypal control freak is outwardly neurotic, maybe a little aggressive about correcting others. I generally come off as quietly Type A,
Fortysomething
I try to avoid talking about my age in cliches, especially meme-ified ones such as "I'm this old ..." followed by a picture of a Game Boy or some other fad from my childhood. In fact, I never use the word "old" about myself