Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today more than ever, it seems that women’s reproductive health is coming under attack. As if being a woman and dealing with all of the jokes that our reproductive organs play on us for most of our lives isn’t bad enough, the government wants to drive a stake through our soft tissue and lay claimContinue reading “when our bodies betray us.”

When I was married, my husband and I had a lot of problems. They were mostly run-of-the-mill problems, the kind most married people face. But we were ignorant, and as things go, ignorance means not being aware of what you don’t know. We weren’t naive; we knew people were flawed. So we put our heads downContinue reading “sweeping things under the rug.”

One of the questions people will ask divorcees in an effort to help them cope with arguments that continue to occur over things that are not even arguments or interesting topics or anything of importance whatsoever is, “Would you rather be right, or would you rather be happy?” I keep trying to be happy, toContinue reading “being right or being happy.”

Friday mornings at Harborview Market have become a weekly routine of late, a time and space to sit and talk and create with the cofounders of the storytelling collective my two friends and I began over a year ago. While on FMLA leave of absence from my job to recover from not one, but twoContinue reading “mad killer egos.”

Several years ago, a friend convinced me to take an online class called #chooseyou, run by a lovely and amazing photographer, professor, and artist (not necessarily in that order) named Jane Ammon. I was reluctant, not because of the cost (it was nominal), or the time (it was minimal), or any reason other than IContinue reading “writing a love letter to yourself.”

I didn’t consider 2017 a particularly awful year: highlights included the healthy and happy birth of my partner’s child in February, a week in Chicago during April vacation with the kids, two weeks in Maui over the summer with my partner, her baby, her extended family, and my children, several more trips to Chicago bothContinue reading “a new outlook for a new year.”

When I was growing up, I got a lot of mixed messages about what it meant to be a girl. I was told that girls can do everything boys can do, that make-up didn’t make the girl, that girls could dress however they wanted to, that we could have a career and a family atContinue reading “getting mixed messages.”

When I was a recent college graduate, Bob Dole was running against Bill Clinton in the presidential election. For the first time in a national election, marriage equality was a hotly debated issue. At the time, I believed Clinton to be a stronger proponent of same-sex marriage, so when dinner conversation at my grandmother’s houseContinue reading “marriage equality.”

This weekend is a three-day weekend. Midterm exams begin next week, and because of a combination of poor planning and some classes full of challenging students whose talents took longer than normal to tap into, I have 120 papers to grade. The papers for my 10th grade classes are only around three pages long andContinue reading “work-life balance.”

“Are you happier?” People ask me, wondering if, in the wake of my divorce, all of the turmoil had been worth it. It’s a tricky question to answer. Yes, I tell them. I’m happier. But it’s a mixed bag of happiness, because it often comes at a high price. I’m content, I tell people, becauseContinue reading “redefining happiness.”