Old School Posts

• Be Happier

  Count 'em. Yup, five. Five cute little images of Gretchen Rubin's new book THE HAPPINESS PROJECT. Not because I like repeating images. (I do. They make me think of wallpaper and I love wallpaper.) Not because five is my favorite number. (That would be thirty-three. Because of Larry Bird. Duh.) N

• The Shallow End

  First order of business. Thank you. For holding my virtual hand through my soggy Sunday moment and its precarious aftermath. For leaving a trail of words. For your existential echoes. It dawned on me after publishing yesterday's post that one surefire way to feel not good enough is to set insane

• Cinematic Birth Control?

  If our "vacation" (to the North Woods of Wisconsin and the suburbs of Chicago) were a movie, I can't decide whether it would be a comedy or a drama or a horror. But (obviously) Reese Witherspoon would play me. And Brad would play Husband. And the trailer would be set to a sultry soundtrack including

• Bath Time

  Friday again. Time for my weekly update on the Happy Headache (a.k.a. the untimely-given-this-recession-gut-reno of our new place). This week, as you might have guessed from the above glorious pic, I'm talking tubs. I've never been a big bath person. I've always been a loyal fan of the quick

• The Dora Dilemma

  National Turn-Off-Tune-In Week began Monday.  Apparently, I missed the memo.  But thanks to Lisa Belkin over at The NYT's Motherlode, I'm now aware that for the past three days, it was my mandate to forego the flatscreen.  Oops. Truth is even if I had gotten this message (one endorsed by a bev

• ILI Breaking News: I Am Not Twenty-One

  Ah, the promised PPP (post-party post). Indeed I am a girl of my word. Too bad I wasn't a girl of my word last night when I told myself on the walk to the party that I would have two drinks max. I guess I am better about keeping promises to other people (like a bevy of strangers on the Internet)

• The Stream

  {Toddler, circa June 2009} "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in." Henry David Thoreau Tuesday. August 31, 2010. What's so special about today? Nothing. Something. Everything. Today is a pocket of time. Of seconds and minutes and hours. Of responsibilities and meetings and appointments. Be

• Freedom

  "The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage." -Thucydides "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." -Mahatma Gandhi "Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." -Voltaire "Freedom lies in being bold." -Robert Frost "All g

• Facebook & Feeling

  I'm going to come right out and say it: I love Facebook. I do. It's worth noting that I do not spend much time at all on the site - maybe ten minutes a day? - but the time I do spend is both enjoyable and rewarding. I love that Facebook facilitates connections with friends old and new. I love be

• Second Chances

  My older sister is in town with her family. In a little while, we will all congregate at Mom's. The kids will do kid things like watch Diego and chase each other around that big wooden dining table I ate at as a girl. They will scamper and squeal. We adults will do adult things like talk and deb