I spend my days watching people. Yes, I recognize that this sounds creepy, but I assure you, it's nothing like that creepster watching kids at the playground that Netflix would turn into a documentary that goes viral. I watch with innocence and wonder, marveling and curiosity. I watch to learn how to live and breathe [...]
Last night, I had two revelations: 1) I am out of Stress Relief tea, and 2) I can't stop thinking about the young girl on the plane. She wore black chucks with low bright purple socks, hair in a high ponytail, glasses like the ones I wear before bed, and a shirt covered in [...]
I wonder if it’s worth counting how many mornings over the last four months I scribbled about watching the pink sunrise while listening to the coffee drip from the kitchen just behind me. Each time, I wrote it as if it was a new thought, a new sight, a new sound. And yet, there’s nothing [...]
Something beautiful happened in Baltimore yesterday: thermometers reached 78 degrees on February 21—a date usually blanketed with snow. Naturally, I found a path near water to walk at lunch and stopped for post-Valentine’s-ridiculously-on-sale flowers on the way home. Today I put on a shirt that looks exactly like a shirt would look if the [...]
On one end of my street, construction workers are knee-deep in building a multi-million dollar library. On the other end, a multi-million dollar fire station will soon have firefighters sliding down the poles they are staking in the ground. It is a mess. Literally. As I've walked by the construction zones on casual strolls [...]
Yesterday, I taught a writing class. We flipped through dogeared pages of Bird by Bird together on a screened-in back porch that overlooked a wooded lot with trees changing colors on me. We waited for the french press to brew our Starbucks medium roast, then wrapped cold fingers around steaming mugs as the temperature dropped. [...]
They asked me, “What brought you back?” “Just to visit,” I said. “Just to see you.” (Did I need a better reason?) This weekend, I had a few options for reunions: high school, college, or grad school. I nearly vomited at the Facebook invite for a ten-year high school reunion. Somehow reliving those years [...]
I desperately want to grow up to become the gray-haired great grandmother who bakes you a seven-layer chocolate cake with buttercream icing. Ignore the fact that I've never baked a cake that didn't start with a little help from my friend Betty. And yet, I press on. She pressed her white pants the night [...]
Recently, I spruced up my tagline on my social media bios. It says, "Lover of words, sprinkles, & wooden pews." I think you understand the love of words, and if you spend some time with me you'll know I have a very best friend who wants to throw me a sprinkle-themed party. And I [...]
Years ago, I wrote a story about a man jogging. I saw him the other day, jogging down my same street, and I wondered about his story, both the real version and the one I invented. Has it changed over the years? Or, would I tell the story differently today? Friends who read my [...]
