This year, I’ve been on a mission to buy fewer clothes.

I had an existential fashion crisis shortly after becoming a mom. It started before that actually, while I was pregnant—but I figured it was temporary and it would be over after he was here. But then I gave birth, and nothing went back to normal. Not only did I have a completely differently shaped body, but it had morphed to be entwined with another human—it had not been mine for quite some time and would not be for quite some...

1. Day Date! Big guy on a date vibes

Michael and I both had the day off of work and got to enjoy some fancy coffee drinks and thrifting without wrangling an 18 month old. It was lovely!

2. Feasting at Home’s eggplant chickpea tagine. No pics, ate too fast for the camera. I’m a huge fan of Sylvia, and her blog has basically taught me how...

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything for anyone other than myself. I have tens of unpublished essays in my Medium drafts from the last several years—some of them are not bad. But reading through them in the wee hour of a sleepless night, I quickly realized why I never published them.

In one, I wrote about the platitude “God gives His hardest battles to his strongest warriors.” It’s not my least favorite mantra, but it’s in the bottom three for me. I couldn’t articulate well...

The clock edges closer to 3pm and I'm fighting the urge to give a two minute notice and walk out. I feel like my entire body has dry mouth as I'm wondering what he'll say. That I've disappointed him? That I put on an impressive show but the gig is up? Thank you for your time but we need someone who can think critically? I try to calm myself and collect my thoughts as I enter this meeting with my boss, still wondering what he'll say when he finds out I'm a garbage engineer.

Thinking...

I couldn't stop the hot tears from spilling out. I was in the seventh grade and the list for the members of the chamber choir had been posted outside of the choir director's office. I had practiced, I had auditioned, I had been waiting with anticipation for a whole week! As I frantically sought out my name, my heart fell as each inky black scribble on the sheet betrayed me. After reading the names of all my friends several times over it became clear through blurred tears: I was not good...