I haven't written at all about the process of writing a book and, now, the daily self-flagellation that is marketing and publicity. Every time I write the word "self-flagellation" (because in my life I have written that word a lot), I think about monks, and then I think about the duomo in Assisi, Italy, and the little room within it that has (they say) St. Francis's real hair shirt. I saw this duomo, and this shirt, in 2010 after I had hiked, quite tipsy at the beginning, from Spello, the next town to the south, through the Parco del Monte Subasio, thinking it was a half hour jaunt but realizing after I'd encountered quite a few other hikers who eyed my American sandals and American messenger bag and happy, carefree, unintelligent American attitude with disbelief and condescension that it was, in fact, five hours away. Thank god I always carry water. As too many of my stories end: I could have died.
Read MoreA few things have happened since the last time I wrote. Yes, my book is coming out! Also, SJ and I got our first vaccinations; I started smoking cannabis; and the pets have been on a rampage of pooping, peeing, and barfing inside the house. I’m talking Every. Fucking. Day.
They must have a schedule. Like they must wake up early and consult with each other, the dog saying to the cat: "Do we have today covered? I pooped in the kids' room yesterday, so if today you could take over barfing on the rug Jenny bought in Oaxaca — extra points for getting the barf to splash UP onto the part of the quilt that's hanging down off the bed — I would really appreciate it."
Read MoreA few days ago I texted my guru, the writer and artist Janet Manley (who has a newsletter that is the smartest, funniest, most original thing on the internet right now, plus she will write your living obituary):
Somehow, amid the everything, I get this nagging feeling that I'm not doing enough, that I could be working harder. WTF is that?
Notwithstanding a pandemic, two full-time jobs between me and SJ, one 3-year-old at home, one 11-year-old at home half the time and attending school remotely, 12 meals a day, a young cat who pees inside the house, a dying dog who pees inside the house, a house, a car, and a minivan in and on which things often break or malfunction and which mostly are dirty and untidy, plus an advice column, a blog, and another Large Project I will announce soon (MARCH 15!!!), I have the gnawing sense that I'm not working hard enough.
As Janet responded: WTF IS THAT I have it too!!
Read MoreI have watched this video a thousand times. SJ keeps catching me watching it and saying, “Pretty pleased with yourself?”
I AM SO PLEASED WITH MYSELF. I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING.
Read MoreIt's New Year's Day in San Francisco. The parrots are back, squawking in the Canary Island date palms across the street. It's completely clear again, so from the top of our block we can see the Bay Bridge, Oakland, Alameda, and Mount Diablo in the distance. Yesterday the four of us chased the waves at Crissy Field, let the ocean air cleanse us of 2020.
I'm not going to say it was a shit year. I don't need to. But also, I can't say it. My son was two years old when this started, and now he's three. Since the beginning of his life—since I was in labor with him, when SJ was driving us to the Redwood City Kaiser at 11 p.m., when I had five contractions in the passenger seat of my car as he received text message after text message from an abusive person intent on trying to ruin the birth of his second child—external forces have been trying to wrest my attention from my son.
Read MoreIt's December in San Francisco. The "office" I share with SJ is the coldest room in the house, because for some goddamn reason the vent is not connected to the heater. San Francisco has pernicious, damp winter air, so I am bone-cold by midmorning.
Read MoreIt’s November in San Francisco. We’ve had our first rain, a light sprinkling just persistent enough that I moved a socially distanced backyard hang into the garage, where a few wonderful women sat six feet apart, wearing masks and drinking tea amid the drizzle, and talked nonstop for two hours.
Read MoreIt’s fall in San Francisco, which means heat waves and wildfires. Yet, during the morning and evening hours, the air is cooler and easier to bear.
Read MoreFrozen is a fact of life.
In the middle of the dumpster fire that is our country and our world, my 10-year-old stepdaughter regularly puts on her bathing suit and climbs into the tub to give my son a bath.
Read MoreGargantubaby is two and three-quarters. He loves to play "family": "You be the baby, and I be the daddy" (or, if he deigns to recognize the 19 months I FED HIM FROM MY BODY, the mommy). Mostly I play him, and he plays one of us, but he also loves to be the baby so he can say, "Goo goo, gaa gaa" and pretend to cry.
Read MoreIt's almost spring in San Francisco. The plum blossoms are right on time, snowing light pink into the pages of my book, Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun.
Read MoreGargantubaby is still two and a half. He's using more words more correctly with more correct inflection and grammar. As usual, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Mostly I'm amazed.
Read MoreGargantubaby is 2 and a half. He's in the 95th percentile for height and weight. At his well-baby checkup, Kaiser once again told us to stop giving him whole milk, which we will continue to ignore.
Read MoreI'm sick of men's holiday gift lists that include: BBQ'ing tools, cologne, whiskey and other hard alcohol-related items, beard shit, flannel shirts, hot sauce, and things made of leather.
Read MoreGargantubaby is 28 months old, but I don't keep track anymore. He's 2 and a half and he will remain 2 and a half until he turns "almost 3." He is a toddler, period.
Read MoreSummer has cooled into fall around here, and it's a pretty subtle change in Northern California. It's too cool for flip-flops but still warm enough for no jackets in the car.
Read MoreI've been reading a lot about mom rage lately (70 MILLION RESULTS ON GOOGLE GO FIGURE).
Read MoreGargantubaby is 27 months old. He wears 4T shirts and pants. Most shoes don't fit him because his feet are like little pound cakes.
Read MoreThis summer, my family achieved that pinnacle of U.S. class privilege: a family vacation in Hawaii!
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