posted Wednesday June 13th, 2012
I discovered the number one band in the country by accident. I’m only a little ashamed to admit to you that I’ve been known to skulk around Anthropologie long after I’m done shopping so I can Shazam the store’s entire playlist. Hey, I’m in my mid-forties. I’m busy and I’m not particularly hip. I’ve got to find […]
posted Sunday May 6th, 2012
“Hey Mom, look!” I glanced up from the computer the other morning to notice Sophie standing at the kitchen counter, all the way up on her tippy toes. I mean all the way. In her sparkly purple Toms. This could explain why those shoes are so trashed — the ends are basically gone. I’m hoping […]
posted Friday January 20th, 2012
Not long ago, Annabelle announced that none of her jeans fit. I was a little surprised; it felt like I’d just bought her new ones. “Well, Mom, when you wear tight jeans, when you outgrow them you really outgrow them,” she said, adding another pair to the pile. Good point. Annabelle really rocks the skinny […]
posted Sunday January 15th, 2012
This morning Sophie asked for a Justin Bieber “mixed CD.” Things improved this afternoon when she asked me to read her some poems from a falling-apart copy of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” so old it has my sister’s name in the front, her maiden name written in little kid script. We read a few, then […]
posted Friday January 13th, 2012
The phone rang early this morning. It was my friend Deborah. “Hey, sorry I didn’t call earlier in the week,” she said. “I’ve been snowed in.” “Literally or figuratively?” I asked, still half-asleep even though I’d been up long enough to make two Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes, a pot of coffee, a sack lunch and a […]
posted Sunday January 8th, 2012
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a good friend who happens to have a special needs child — make that special needs adult, this kid is about to graduate from high school. Suffice to say, my friend knows her way around the block. “You’re getting the pass for Sophie, right?” she asked when […]
posted Sunday January 1st, 2012
My dear friend Jill shared her personal manifesto in our Mothers Who Write class last fall, and it got me thinking, of course, about my own. (Jill’s is magnificent — like she is. Included on it: “I will judge you by your playlist.” She’s inspired us to post them on the New Times culture blog, […]
posted Tuesday December 27th, 2011
We’re going to Disneyland soon, and Sophie’s hoping we see the new Disney princess, the purple-loving, blue-eyed Sofia I read about a couple weeks ago. Yes, there’s a new Disney princess, and she and Sophie have a lot in common. When Sophie mentions Sofia, I change the subject. I never should have brought it up. […]
posted Thursday December 8th, 2011
We have a new babysitter starting tonight, and she’s Jewish. Not Jewish like me, but Jewish like I suspect she actually goes to synagogue. So I’m feeling a little self conscious about the giant Christmas tree in our living room. In our nearly 14 years of marriage, Ray and I have often had trees, but […]
posted Monday December 5th, 2011
I heard a small voice behind me. “Where’s Sophie?” I’d been wondering if anyone would ask. It was almost halfway through the Saturday night performance of the Snow Queen, and the sprites — already covered in green glitter, hair teased in ponytails all over their little heads – were putting on their unitards and wings, getting ready for their […]