Today I bought myself an entire box of Russell Stover chocolates. You know those boxes you get for Mother’s Day and your birthday sometimes (or, for the guys, the ones you buy)? It turns out they are sitting right there in the store, just waiting for you to buy them for yourself. I will be [...]

I’m not great at finishing. I’m masterful at starting. I’m a dynamo of plans and activity, imagining the great heights I’ll reach and the wonderful masterpieces I’ll create. My ideas flash throughout the day – the home improvement projects I could start, the books I could write, the painting class I mean to get around [...]

I picked up the phone and my daughter was sobbing on the other line. “Mommy, I’m hurt.” “Calm down, please. Tell me what happened.” “My knee. I fell down and it’s bleeding really bad. Daddy says I need stitches.” It’s not the worst case scenario, but it wasn’t really great either. I’m still getting used [...]

When I step out of my class at 10:00 p.m., that makes 16 hours I’ve been obsessed about it. In classic recovering junkie style, I don’t tell myself I’ll go a whole day without it – that feels insurmountable. Instead, I make deals with myself. I’ll get the kids ready without having one. I’ll drive [...]

On a sweltering day in the summer of 1983, I confronted my mother. “But, Mami, why can’t we join the town pool? It’s not fair!” I cried. Our rented home, for which my parents barely scraped payments every month, was a tidy hospital-green box perched on the side of a North Bergen, New Jersey hill, [...]

“Forget about your type,” says one of the white-haired women at the breakfast table. A group of us sits around three pushed-together tables at the coffee shop in town and the subject of my newly-divorced dating life has come up. She continues, “Your ‘type’ is probably the last thing you need.” “But I like tall, [...]

A few years ago, I broke up with a woman I really loved and whom I’d hoped would be in my life forever. No, it wasn’t like THAT. (I only led you on to get your attention). But I did love her, and I did hope to make her a permanent part of my life. [...]

It’s not exactly that I want civilization to end or anything like that. It’s more that I have a strange fascination with the idea. While other summer readers are picking up a romance or a good current events book for their beachside entertainment, I am trolling to see if there are any good new disaster [...]