and it was a huge fucking deal — Gratitude, terror, relief, worry, joy, embarrassment: I spent 22 years on an emotional rollercoaster in a car that could fly off the rails at any moment. I was always grateful for the ride, but it was exhausting. 22 years ago we were all living the emotional aftermath of 9/11. That…

No, not me. Not yet. — The buzzer to my apartment gave off its deafening fire alarm roar and I answered with my usual chipper “Hello?” I always want the people who deliver stuff to me to know that I appreciate them. A lot. Someone even more chipper let me know that my sushi had arrived. …

Times change — I’m rewatching the original Star Trek series for the eleventy-billionth time — as Trekkies do — and something is wrong. I think a dart from out of the past has pierced my heart and it’s now doing a slow bleed onto my modern sensibilities. I still love the show, but…

The Shirky Principle tells us that companies sell solutions to problems that they’re invested in perpetuating. Credit monitoring companies have perfected this principle. Many of us are signed up with one or more for all the obvious reasons. They offer credit reports, alerts about credit rating changes, valuable educational information…

And unfinished projects — I’m a crafter. That encompasses a wide variety of crafts. So many that I had to open an Etsy shop to get some of the many things I make out of my house because I need the room for my books — another hobby. I have an insanely large personal…

Love what you love — I’m listening to a music playlist I created called All Time Favorites. It’s over 7 hours long. I’ve been consciously and deliberately listening to music since I was nine years old and a friend played Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” for me on her glittery pink portable turntable. That song didn’t…

It’s never too late, but you gotta start — I am in flux. In transition. In the beginning of reinvention. A friend calls it my “scheming, dreaming, and planning” phase. I like that. But because we often know very little, next to nothing, of a person’s inner life, you would never know just looking at my outward face. It’s…

It’s not what you think — I wear a bra three days a week. Those are the days I work in the office. If I’m at home it’s guaranteed I’m not wearing one. I’ll put one on for vigorous workouts. If I go out somewhere, I may or may not be wearing a bra. It just…

You’re asking the wrong questions — I drink a lot of coffee. Copious, stupid amounts of coffee. That leads to popping into the lunchroom at work quite often. Which means I end up seeing many more people than I would if I didn’t drink as much coffee. This helps justify my caffeine habit, as it leads…