• DC widow blog writer Marjorie Brimely writes by fire
    Holidays

    42

    Today is my birthday. It’s also the 3-year anniversary of my first blog post, “My 39th birthday…” Over the past few months, I’ve started to re-read many of these old blog posts, and sometimes I am downright shocked at the degree of openness I put out there, right in the beginning. So as I thought about my birthday this year, I decided to re-read this part of that post from three years ago: Here’s the thing – it’s not that I feel insecure in the same way I did at age 21, worried about how my hair looked or whether I was wearing the right jeans or drinking the right…

  • DC widow blog writer Marjorie Brimley sits with boyfriend by ocean
    Dating

    Cowboy Take Me Away

    I’ve been listening to The Chicks a lot lately. I like their new album and I’ve been remembering back to when I re-discovered them in the fall of 2018. At the time, I was starting to re-discover a lot of things about myself, and the song “Cowboy Take Me Away” made me reflect on how I was struggling with men. I decided to write a blog post about it. Here’s an excerpt (from “Smash the Patriarchy,” November 14, 2018): When I heard the song the other day, I sang along, and I felt that same emotion – a yearning for something else. But it wasn’t particularly for a new lover.…

  • Shawn and Marjorie Brimley black and white photo before illness
    New Perspectives

    Who Am I?

    Last night, a friend of mine flew in from out of town and we had dinner.  We met up on 14th street and both marveled about how much it had changed from when we were in our 20s and roaming around on a Saturday night.  We had a great meal and got caught up with each other.  But at this point in time, dinner with me is never just one where I gossip with my friends.  It’s almost always a pretty intense affair. I think when I start talking about my life, it also brings out the serious side in some of my friends as well.  As we ate our…