Feeling Better About my Brows

A few years or maybe a decade ago a wrote a post about how Nora Ephron felt bad about her neck but I felt bad about my brows. In the time since that post, I continued to mourn my lack of facial hair. This year, I stopped whining and looked for solutions. If Richard Branson…

The Chicken Family: Sort of like The Partridge Family, but with less talent and more husbands

  I’ve told you stories about my family but I’ve never explained my family. This is because that’s complicated. But I’m feeling expansive tonight so what the heck, here goes. In short, it’s a big, messy, beautiful love story. Let’s ease into it with this also familiar story line… Here’s the story of a lovely…

What’s your favorite children’s book?

I recently came across a short piece (InStyle September 2014) that queried celebrities about their favorite childhood books.  I remember four, in particular, that I loved. Bedknobs and BroomsticksThe Little PrincessRobinson CrusoeMy  Side of the Mountain In “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, kids used their magic bedknob to fly their bed through the night to distant lands.…

On The Increasingly Complex Algorithm of Parenthood

When I was 15 or so I asked my dad to help me with some algebra homework.  I was not good at algebra way back then (she notes, as though she might be much better at algebra now) but my father was purported to be quite handy at math so who better to ask? My…

Vi Chronicles: How to Raise a Thief

Hi World, My  mother, Violet, had two sisters and seven kids. I was the youngest of my mother’s kids, and the youngest cousin. On the day I learned to steal, the three sisters, Vi (my mother), Tee and Lula,  found themselves a pick-up truck and a willing teen-age driver.  They packed a cooler with ice,…