Moving Season
It’s moving season in Chicago. Every leafy side street is full of U-hauls and hatchbacks. Alley stairwells everywhere echo with stuck sofas and clanging bed frames. Although the sticky heat is a terrible time for hauling box springs and arm chairs, 40-below and in 2-feet of unplowed snow is infinitely worse, I imagine. Around here … Continue reading
Old Friends
As a Michigander in Chicago it is inevitable I run into people. This place is full of past. For me, my family, my friends. But the particular domestic pleasure of walking through Andersenville on a sunny morning is multiplied when you recognize an old friend in the dappled crosswalk. The gaunt gait and long jaw … Continue reading
Kintsugi: The Art of Being Whole
I love the Internet. The collection of thoughts from vast swathes of humanity can make the most unexpected connections both serendipitous and sublime. Sometimes they are explicit: the public conversations of my filter bubble circling around related or juxtaposed ideas. But more often, I find my curiosity leading me down rabbit holes I didn’t know … Continue reading
Things I Like — Virginia Woolf
If you told Dumas-loving-14-year-old me she’d ever be into the Hemmingway-Iceberg theory of modern novels and unspoken things she’d give you the squinty-two-eye. If you promised tightly-wound college me she’d indulge in meandering, obtuse sentences as long as the night which go nowhere at all (and that’s beautiful) she’d laugh derisively. If you tempted the … Continue reading
Diving In
Once upon a time I had a life I no longer loved and I ditched it. I ditched its ass hard. Great, wondrous things came of that flying leap into god-knows-what. Or rather, great, wondrous voids descended in quick succession and over many years, and in them I continued to find myself huddled in the … Continue reading
Things I Like — Natural Hair
The trend for silvery locks, and my own graceful decent into gray, have only reinforced what I’ve always known: natural hair = best. There’s a long tradition of normalising flowing Anglo hair-types; of color defining social standing or intelligence; of stigmatising the wiriness of erratic grays as a lack of vitality inside, too. Ugly things … Continue reading
Things I Like — Texting
I remember receiving my first text. I didn’t even know phones were capable of such things and thought “well that’s genius.” I can send information urgently without interrupting. I can receive information quickly without having to stop what I’m doing (unless it’s driving) or go find/talk to/ call someone. I can chat withs someone really … Continue reading
Things I Like — Oldies
As a true member of the Oregon Trail Generation, I am expected to wax nostalgic before something is even over, and reminisce regularly about 80s pop culture staples (I do. I have. Since 1988.). But it cannot explain my undying love for old music. And not trite hipster Johnny Cash effusions and LPs, but plain … Continue reading
Audacity, Self Awareness (& Basketball)
In 7th grade I played intramural basketball. Being a late bloomer in 90% of human functionality, namely anything which wasn’t purely cognitive and especially anything requiring social skills or awareness, I played basketball like a child. At 13, I didn’t care who was watching, or if my jersey was lumpy. I didn’t care if the … Continue reading
What I Learned in 2014
This time of year (even more than most) the internet is full of lists. Lists of what to buy; lists of how to be a better host (or a better person in general); lists of best Thises and Thats. Lists of how you’re living all wrong. Lists of things to do differently next year. And … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 