There’s a saying in my family:
“First is first.”
I am the eldest daughter of three children, and my late father was fond of pulling me aside and telling me that, no matter what, I had a secure place in his heart because first was first.
He and I were very close, a bond forged early in my [...]

We’ve been busy here on the north coast of America.
The days flew by, and tomorrow afternoon we pick Mr. Chicken up at the airport for a whirlwind Father’s Day weekend of baseball games, wedding showers and steak dinners. Then Monday, we mount up again and head back to the wilds of the Great Middle West, [...]

In a fit of energy and organization, I dragged several bags of The Poo’s old clothes up from the basement a few weeks ago. I sorted the bags into four categories: save, Shaggy, give away to a friend, and sell.
The energy has long since dissipated, but before it did I managed to drag one basket [...]

Last night was a very special night.
Last night, we (and by “we” I mean my husband) lifted The Poo into her crib for the very last time. This morning, her big-girl bed arrives, in all its white bead-board glory.
We’ve waited weeks for this newest piece in the puzzle that is The Poo’s girlhood. She is [...]

As a teenager and a young woman, I longed for the kind of friendships I had before our move overseas broke most of my relationships irrevocably.
My new school overwhelmed me, and I cultivated the aura of a cynical outsider in what I suspect was a very poor attempt to mask my throbbing, hurt feelings. College [...]

Inspired by Mrs. Chicky, who asked me if I would tell you about my dad, when he was alive. “He must’ve been a hellava guy,” she said. And indeed, he really was.
****
My parents’ financial situation was always hidden from view. It never occurred to me that we were poor; after all, we had a house, [...]

I was in journalism school the first time I watched “All The President’s Men.” Already enamored with the idea of writing for a living, the sight of a gloriously golden Robert Redford and a very intense Dustin Hoffman working to bring down a government using only the power of the press was enough to seal [...]

There was a time when I believed - with all my heart - that I could be a writer.
Never a stellar student (working hard has never suited my temperament), I excelled effortlessly in English class. The books we read lit my mind on fire, the words and the stories taking me far from the dreary [...]

Three years ago right now I stood in the kitchen of a downtown loft apartment, teary-eyed and craving the comfort of a cup of coffee.
The locket I normally wore around my neck was pooled inside my nervous palm, a necklace given to my mother by my father on the occasion of her 21st birthday. Inside [...]

While you’re reading this, I’m sitting in tin can hurtling through the sky at a gazillion miles an hour, holding on to the armrest as if that will ground me.
I hate to fly. Hate hate hate. It’s not your normal “I hate to fly, goddamn airport delays, stupid baggage gets lost, all that teeming humanity” [...]