A week into Covid, I told my daughter I had brain frog. (That’s not a typo.) “Damn it,” I said. “I mean bran fog.” Sigh. I’m in week two now — and yes, for all of you judging, I am vaccinated and had two booster shots. I got Covid anyway…

Seriously, please stop! Dear People Who Post Their Wordle Scores, “Wow!” “Good for you!” You got it in two tries? Aren’t you brilliant?! I wish I knew you!” I’m kidding. People, please stop. What makes you believe that anyone is interested in how well you did on this daily puzzle…

How to say goodbye to your stuff by understanding that the great purge is actually about saying goodbye to a stage of life — Going through my daughter’s room is like an archeological dig into the detritus of her childhood. Here’s the tiny stuffed pink elephant that my husband bought at the hospital gift shop the day she was born, now faded and stained. Here’s the needlepoint string of geese that hung over her…

And why sometimes losing your work is a good thing — “You didn’t back up? Those are words you should never say to anyone who has lost days, weeks, or years of work on a computer. Most of us who have experienced the stomach plunging, heart-racing, dry-throated realization that everything you’ve been laboring on is gone — just gone— have learned…

We keep hearing about how Covid has constrained our lives. Well, that is not the experience of my cat, Van Gogh. Van Gogh has significantly expanded his social and intellectual life during the pandemic. His world keeps getting bigger. In the photo above, you will see the cat participating in…

It was college application time, and things were not going well. My teenage daughter and I were at loggerheads. She’d been a focused, bright girl until aliens took over her brain and body at about the age of 15. …

Reevaluating Friendships Through A Pandemic “We don’t even have time to see the people we like!” That was my Mom’s unfiltered response when one of her sister-in-laws called to make plans to get together. This happened years ago, and at the time I was appalled by her by her blunt rudeness. But as we head…

Advice To Deal With the Most Difficult People in Your Life — I won’t even tell you how much time I’ve logged in therapy over the years — only that I consider the money spent the best investment I’ve ever made. To share the dividends, I’m passing along two psychology life hacks that have been truly helpful. First, some background. My greatest…

Here are a few phrases that make me want to throw your book against a wall Dear Male Writers Depicting Female Body Parts, Currently, I am judging a literary contest. Well, “literary” may be too strong a statement. Let’s just say I’m reviewing novels. The winners will get awards that lead to better sales. To be clear, these are not self-published works, but books published by…