I was born out of wedlock in Minnesota, to a white mother and an Afghan (not the blanket, the country) father. It was considered pretty scandalous for my mom to be a single mother with a brown baby back in 1979 in Minnesota. My mother had been with my father off and on for nearly seven years before I […]
There are a few things in life I feel like I’m pretty good at, among them, roasting a mean pork tenderloin, giving sad sacks hours and hours of life advice without pay, drinking a whole bottle of champagne without getting slurry, drawing meaningful dating wisdom from unlikely sources (like “Star Trek”), and traveling alone. Interestingly, […]
You think you love Christmas? Check your elf hat at the door. Your excitement is only a fraction of what cats across the world are feeling. This year, I’ve been lucky enough to watch two kittens experiencing Christmas for the first time and I’m a little jealous of all the fun they’re having. Here are five […]
My favorite thing about traveling is that it always changes me. Whether I’m taking a road trip to a neighboring state or exploring Europe for a month, I never come back home the same person I was when I left. Traveling changes your perspective, it changes the way you see yourself, and it changes the […]
A new study revealed that kids who associate with the goth scene tend to be more depressed than average, and are more likely to engage in self-harm. The researchers said that the majority of goth kids aren’t at risk, but that it could be important to reach out to the minority who are. However, they also […]
It was a Tuesday afternoon and I was on my therapist’s couch. I described for her an incident over the weekend when I felt sad, deeply sad, for seemingly no reason at all. I had felt reclusive and shy and wanted to stay in my bed; when my husband encouraged me to go to a birthday […]
Almost exactly year ago, TIME magazine ran a cover story called “The Childfree Life” about the rising number of Americans who were opting not to have kids. One of those couples was Paul and Leah Clouse, who both felt that they couldn’t balance their creative interests (a bakery for her, a blog for him) and also be good parents. “If […]
A few weeks ago, I was flying home from a blissful vacation, trying to ignore a screaming baby a few rows ahead of me and cringing at the cacophony of phlegm-y coughs coming from the seat behind me, when I realized that every flight is exactly the same. Looking around me, it was as though […]
A new report on millennial women at work claims that one of the researchers’ big surprises was that “Women around age 30 rank pay, lack of learning and development, and a shortage of meaningful work as the primary reasons why they leave organizations.” And, wow, I’m just shocked to hear that, aren’t you? So surprise. Such unexpected. Forgive my […]
