The entire time I was there, I kept asking myself: what am I doing in North Carolina? Over and over, in texts and emails to others, and in my own head, what the hell am I doing? Because there was barely a week between returning from Denver and flying off to Raleigh, I didn’t have... Continue Reading →
The March I Remembered Myself
In collaborating with a woman I sort-of know but would like to know better to start a Ladies & Money book club, I began reading our first book. I was nervous that I was starting too soon, as I am a very fast reader, and our meeting wasn’t for another twenty-two days. Coinciding with this... Continue Reading →
Beach House
40 Days of Writing/Spring 2017/Day 5 Tonight the music rules were No Hamilton and No Queen. First of all: oh hell no. But second of all: okay. My man had spent the day building a new fence and a new chicken coop in the cold driving rain and hail (this is not a fictional dramatized... Continue Reading →
Purple Brain
The first time I really sat down to listen to him -I mean really listen, not just sing along to his hits that made their way to the radio - was on a break from K-Mart mopping the dining room floor of Full City Cafe in Kalamazoo. It was the end of the night, all... Continue Reading →
Better Than the Cause
I started my morning with coconut macaroons and Arcade Fire, after having spent the first two hours upon waking laying in bed, writing down my dream about finding a small book filled with polaroids of my son when he was young, and the people surrounding our lives at that time who loved him. I then... Continue Reading →
Dispatch From The Island
The beautiful thing about being on vacation is the lack of guilt. Well, this vacation anyway. Some vacations aren't really all-consuming in their hazy sweaty sun-filled distractions and so guilt is allowed to creep in between the cracks, those moments or hours of downtime when you start to think about All Of The Things You... Continue Reading →
40 Days of Writing, Round…Something
The latest round of 40 Days of Writing began today. Once I remembered, I thought, again, what is with this timing? A writing challenge that begins shortly before Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas Eve. As in, the busiest time of the year. Although lately, (for years maybe?) it almost doesn't matter what major holidays or... Continue Reading →
An Open Letter to my Facebook Friends:
I just have to say, I'm so happy to have all of you in my weird, sometimes off-putting Facebook land. Today social media exploded with beautiful news. That news, fantastically, has remained beautiful as the day has worn on. What I've seen from the moment I woke up until now, when I'm about to go... Continue Reading →
Coming Unchained
I used my drive to work this morning to catch up on NPR podcasts, as usual. Since my children have developed an interest in hearing Ask Me Another, Snap Judgement and Wait Wait...Don’t tell me!, I now save those for when they’re in the car with me. This morning, I was listening to All Songs Considered.... Continue Reading →
At This Time, Back Then
Two Aprils ago, Paulie and I decided to break up. There were valid reasons for both of us, which made sense at the time, but clearly they didn't stick because as you know we are again a couple: living together, breathing together, laughing together, growling together. Yes, growling; it wasn't a typo. But growing, too -... Continue Reading →
Amanda Janik 