Gratuitous Color Shot #8: Could you elaborate on that?

At the risk of messing with my street cred as “the least Zen person I know,” “kinda tightly wound,” and “a massive overanalyzer,” I am constantly trying to be more accepting of what the universe sees fit to offer me. Especially when it sends me signs—sometimes literal signs—to chill no matter how ragged and beset [...]

Marsee Bakery olive bread: It’s the pits!

Call me mind-blowingly optimistic, but when I buy a loaf of olive bread and see a “May contain olive pits” disclaimer, I assume that any “pits” will be pretty much pulverized. Because what commercial bakery would have a quality control process that allowed pits of any DISCERNABLE size to appear in the final product? Well, [...]

Another side to her story

In an odd, falling-dominoes way I discovered that a woman I liked very much died last week. Cancer. God knows others have much richer memories of her than I do. I only knew her during a single, condensed phase of her life–a time when she was throwing monstrous amounts of time and a not-insignificant amount [...]

More Emily Dickinson than PT Barnum

In the late 90s, I accidentally scratched out a bedtime story that seemed to delight more than a few children and a surprising number of insomniacs. A few years later, a friend called in a favor and made an offer: if I wanted, I could get free spec illustrations from a local artist. I wanted. [...]