I was sitting in the back row of ninth-grade math class and passing notes with my friend Rob, who liked Pearl Jam as much as I did. Rob and I were not exactly troublemakers but we were also definitely not Cool Kids and school was just so stupid and we were sort of mischievous. So …
A little music in honor of St. Paddy’s Day. As I wrote in an essay for Cordella recently, I fell in love with traditional Irish music as a struggling teenager, when a wonderful teacher introduced me to it. This music felt visceral and wild as any Nirvana bootleg and put an ecstatic hum alongside my heartaches. …
Rob and I (aka The Scrivening Bartlebys) loved making a joyful ruckus at House of Brews last weekend. Thanks if you were one of the beloved friends who came! But the best moment might’ve been when this guy crept up on stage… (Can you spot him on the right?)
“Tell me what you’ve been thinking about lately,” I said to my husband. (This is—a friend pointed out to me recently—a classic June question. I like to hear people’s deep thoughts: what they’re wrestling with, who and what they love, what they’ve always wanted to do with their lives. You’d be amazed how deep you …
I’ve started brewing poems lately, after a long time of not. A bit about this one: For many years, I’ve been drawn to a character named Mad Maudlin, who appears in 17th and 18th century Bedlamite ballads. She was the female counterpart to a “Mad Tom o’Bedlam” character, the catch-all term for asylum inmates released …
I guess I’ll start with the Christmas cards. Most years, if I even manage to get cards out, I make them myself. Last-minute. Stapled together with a couple of Instagram pictures printed out on our low-toner inkjet. I actually like it this way. Punk Rawk Xmas! We’d never had a professional family portrait, until a few …
I was pretty mad at my husband this morning. Details not important. Level of anger important. I was at that stage where you get out the blankets for that spare bed in the basement. I was at the stage where I regarded every flattering social media post we’ve ever made about each other as the …