My blog

Anyone who knows me knows that my birthday is a month-long event.  Coming smack-dab in the middle of June as it does, I have long considered June “Maria Month.”  So it stands to [...]

So, I was down the shore this past weekend and, with my new burning desire for YouTube fame I figured I would be SO CLEVER if I recorded my “how I got my literary agent” video in [...]

Is it wrong to call the President “adorable?”                    

Recently, I went to brunch with an old friend I hadn’t seen in about a year.  We used to be very close, talking every day, but then life took us in different directions.  She’s the [...]

Dear weeds: Like with all my love relationships, life with you has sometimes been complex.  Sure, I’ve yanked you out of the ground.  But, in my defense, I’ve never sprayed you with toxic [...]

Because, you know, the Port Authority isn’t bad enough on its own. Initial reports seem unclear but someone posted that some clown left a box with toy granades.  Freaking hilarious, loser! [...]

She turned my life upside down in the most painful way imaginable 10 years ago.  Then she disappeared.  Yesterday, she wrote me on Facebook, asking for a big favor.  It was something of a shock, [...]

Okay, okay, it’s wrong to blame it on the cab.  But “When dumb criminals carjack cabs and wedge them in front of my supermarket” was too long for a title. So… this morning [...]

One of the reasons I began to tell my story about having been an undocumented immigrant was 9/11.  More specifically, the way it became acceptable to talk about immigrants following the terrorist [...]

I’ve been meaning to start a video component to this blog for a while now.  Finally, here it is.  Most of my videos will have to do with topics in my book, but today I felt like introducing [...]

Watching Humvees with army-type guys armed to the teeth rolling down the quiet streets of Cambridge is hard for me.  For one, I have spent significant time in Cambridge and I love it there. For [...]

Within the last six months, events have rocked my convictions to the core.  Sandy Hook and all those murdered children.  The Boston Marathon and all that senseless suffering.  But I am still [...]

I go on a 9 day vacation and come back to a barely recognizable garden!  I feel like the mother who is forced to go away for a long period of time to come back and find that her children have [...]