I am not a morning person. Never have been. Ever since elementary school, I’ve been incapable of getting out of bed in a timely manner, let alone having anything resembling hand-eye coordination or a good attitude before, you know, noon. But in recent years, through a seemingly endless series of trials and errors, I’ve discovered […]
Now that Halloween is over, the festive tidal wave of Thanksgiving and Christmas is beginning to build. It might seem a bit early to be discussing the holidays, but it’s never too soon to start preparing for the emotional onslaught they bring. Your mom is already calling to guilt trip you about not spending a full week with her for Thanksgiving. You’re […]
Last week, I dropped my boyfriend off at work at 6 a.m. and took a long walk through the city. I watched the sun rise over the river and pondered the meaning of life. I sipped a coffee and brainstormed some story ideas as I smiled at strangers who passed me on the nearly empty streets. […]
In the months leading up to my move from Portland to Nashville, my life wasn’t exactly going smoothly. My family situation was growing more stressful by the day. Some of my closest friendships had turned toxic. I felt extremely out of place in the hipster culture that dominated the city. My boyfriend wasn’t happy in […]
This week marks the year anniversary of my big move to Nashville. I can’t believe it’s already been a year. On the one hand, it feels like I’ve been here forever, and on the other, it feels like about 2 weeks has passed since we sold all our stuff and set off on our cross-country road trip. I was […]
Barbara Terry, a 52-year-old prostitute living in the Bronx section of New York City who’s been working as a lady of the night for more than 30 years. As a woman in her 20s, Terry was left alone to care for four young children and needed to find a way to support herself. And though […]
I wasn’t always good at negotiating. As a writer, I was usually just delighted to be getting paid anything at all, so if I was told a freelance rate or a starting salary was standard or set in stone, I took it and I liked it, with the kind of deranged enthusiasm that you only […]
When I was in middle school, I was picked to become a peer mediator. At the time, I was just stoked to get out of classes for two days for program-mandated training, but it ended up being some of the most useful stuff I learned in school. The theory behind peer mediation is that kids […]
I suppose in some ways I was destined to become a control freak. I was born into a proud dynasty of control freaks. My family is Italian, and growing up it was made very clear to me that a woman’s job is to keep everyone–especially the men–in line. Not only was I the oldest child, […]
