Alas, I’ve finally decided to buckle down and finish my degree. I mean, the only thing between me and this practically useless piece of paper most people I encounter assume I have anyway is one little math class, so why not? Why not, indeed. If you know me you know that I get along with... Continue Reading →
On the 10th Day of Wondering
According to the Period Tracker app on my phone, I was a week late. My cycle tends to adapt itself around when I’ll be going on vacation; I’m used to that. If expecting my period to start before a trip, I’ll instead bloat like an overfilled balloon left in the gutter during a rainstorm for a... Continue Reading →
Solitary Confinement
This morning was another which found me waking late, overheated and heavily dreaming in the flannel sheets, to the sound of a text coming through my phone. I’d forgotten, again, to switch off the ringer the night before. “No!” I shouted at it, turning it off, then rolling back over, trying to hide but irreversibly,... Continue Reading →
Out With the Old: 10 Confessions from 2015
1. I don't like Adele's new single, "Hello". While vacationing on a very small island during the first week it was released, the song was so overplayed that it lost any memory-inducing or melancholic value it may have otherwise held for me. It's just like nails on a chalkboard to me now. 2. Every year, I hide my kids' Halloween candy... Continue Reading →
I am a Reader, and I Wrote
Given the sudden excess of time I find myself with lately, which is unlike anything I've ever had in my adult life, I started reading the December issue of The Sun magazine last night. This means that November is in the pile right behind it, and October after that. Out of the past five months'... Continue Reading →
Three Thanksgivings
As I write this, my daughter is zesting oranges gleaned from our neighbor’s tree, which hangs over our driveway and provides us with all the oranges we can reach during two separate seasons of the year. Next to her is my boyfriend Paulie, using coconut cream as a hopeful substitute for butter in his rum-drizzled... Continue Reading →
First Concert Envy
When I asked my kids if they'd like to go to a small concert, they were hesitant. "I don't really like...'concerts' said my son, who had never actually been to a concert. I explained that it wouldn't be a huge thing with thousands of sweaty people - it was happening in a barn at a... Continue Reading →
Go West, Young Girl
My mother told me to wear a baseball cap, so I would look like a boy. This was one of the many pieces of advice I took and then quickly abandoned on my drive to California from Kalamazoo. "If the truckers think you're a boy they won't try to trick you into stopping so they... Continue Reading →
The First Time I Saw the Ocean
The first time I ever saw the ocean, U2's The Joshua Tree was blasting from the speakers of Cole's '66 coffee-and-cream Mercedes. I was squatting in the passenger seat, perched on my toes so I could see better, singing along at the top of my lungs as we rounded a corner, and there it was... Continue Reading →
Word to This Mother
I’ve been thinking a lot about Mother’s Day, now that it’s come and gone. I am just as selfish as the next overworked mom, and so secretly want to be fawned over on the two days in the entire year that are supposed to be about ‘me’ - aka my birthday and Mother’s Day -... Continue Reading →
Amanda Janik 