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The Closet
I am a minimalist. So was Shawn. We both hated stuff, and made sure to clear out anything that wasn’t being used frequently. In fact, a friend came over the other day after I cleaned and jokingly asked, “what happened? Did you get robbed?” I laughed. Shawn would have been proud. My kids know that I am likely to get rid of any and all clutter and they are pretty used to it, but they frequently worry that I might “lose” something of theirs. For example, the other day at a party, Claire came up to me, handed me something and started to run off. But then she paused, turned…
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Rainbow Chicken
I know I keep writing about it, but wow, March was HARD. I cried more than I’d cried in months, and I had moments when I wasn’t sure if I was going to be okay in the long-term. I had terrible anxiety at night and walked around like a bit of a zombie during the day. But I convinced myself that my kids didn’t really notice. Or if they did, they didn’t care that much. They still had school and their friends and my dad. So what if their mom was a little bit off? Claire asked how I was doing a few times, and I was honest that I…
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First Rental Car
I went to Minnesota in February this year. I know. It probably wasn’t the BEST time to visit that part of the country. But I had an assignment: I was going there to interview Nora McInerny. (As a note, this post is not about that interview – that’s not for my blog. This post is about my own experience of being in Minnesota. If you’d like to read what I wrote about Nora, click here.) A few months prior, I had pitched the idea to write about Nora’s new book. I spent about 20 minutes telling my editor how interesting Nora is, and all of the work she does for…
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New York, New York
“Woah,” Claire said as we came out of the dark tunnel and into the sunshine. “This is New York? It’s AMAZING!” We had arrived at Penn Station for a special birthday trip to the Big Apple. She’d been to New York before, but she didn’t remember it. This trip was going to be different. We were meeting her cousin Ashley (and Ashley’s mom Amy, who flew out from Texas to meet us because they are awesome) and we were going to celebrate Claire’s first decade of life. “It’s so busy!” Claire said, “and all the cabs are yellow. And there’s someone dressed like Wonder Woman over there!” I laughed. Her…
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Happy Now
As I write this blog post, I’m sitting on the deck of an oceanfront house, looking out at the bluest water I’ve ever seen. Next to me is a half-eaten grapefruit and sand covers my feet. My two best friends Kelly and Paige are in the chairs next to me, laughing about something we did last night. I am in paradise. But it’s not paradise because of the incredibly nice real estate or the perfect weather or the great company. It’s my paradise because – for the first time in a month – I’m happy. Yes, I said it: happy. I know, for my family and friends, everyone is thinking:…
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Walk to the End of the Driveway
My dad spent over four decades working as a doctor. Most of those years were spent in my hometown in Oregon. It’s a small town, and so my dad saw all sorts of people in his practice. But the life of an internist is not glamorous, and while my dad had a number of great stories when he was able to save someone’s life, usually his days consisted of seeing people with mundane problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Often, he had to talk to his patients about losing weight. “You just need to eat less and exercise more,” my dad would say. “I’m trying,” the patient…
There’s No Handbook for How to Do This
