And if you can’t survive in this world, you had better make a world of your own. – Jeanette Winterson Day 30 of quarantine, Friday night was not a good night for me. In fact, all of last week was difficult. Outwardly, I probably appeared on edge, irritable, maybe a little drunk, but inside, I […]
There is a holiness to exhaustion –Carrie Fountain A few months ago I was talking to a friend about our high school days. Remember when we used to go to school at like seven in the morning, sit through seven hours of classes, then two hours of hockey practice, go home, complete our homework, then […]
What’s so hard about that first sentence is that you’re stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you’ve laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone. – Joan Didion I’m not someone who reads the back of books. I’ve been told by […]
Ballet is more than a profession – it is a way of life. – Margot Fonteyn Awhile ago a friend and I were talking about religion. She belonged to a church whose ideology was based on the idea that there is no one ideology – God cannot be found in one form. As a teen, […]
Day 15 of quarantine, Toilet paper supply is stable, but tensions are high. I spent Friday night cooking vinegar braised chicken and roasted beats when I began to feel that throb of restlessness. It’s coming, I thought. I drowned it in the last bottle of wine I had stashed away, unnerved by the fact that […]
Q: Do you admire Elegance? A: Yes, because it makes you feel better. It’s a form. I’m very attached to certain forms, like compulsive rituals. I like to cook; I like to sew. They’re peaceful things, and they’re an expression of caring. The interview question above is answered by Joan Didion. I passed it while […]
An English professor once told my short stories class that if you want to be a writer, it’s imperative you live in New York at least once in your life. I took his advice to heart and moved to New York not after graduation, but during it. Eight years later, I understand his advice in […]
In 1816, twenty-year-old Mary Shelley and her husband traveled to Switzerland for a summer vacation to the home of their friend’s house, Lord Byron. For three weeks, however, the weather was so bad, so fraught with storms and high winds, no one was able to leave the house. With a few other guests staying with […]