Alphabet, A History: W (Winter)

The following piece of creative nonfiction is part of a series I started on my personal blog a few years ago called “Alphabet: A History,” which is a collection of short, autobiographical vignettes, focusing mainly on relationships (familial, romantic, platonic, and self). It’s July, 2004 — hot and sticky. We’re sitting in his backyard drinking Gin & Tonics and taking turns reading the latest issue of Vanity Fair. “You have any beer?” I ask. “No,” he replies, reaching for his wallet, “but I’ll buy if you fly.” I stand up and take his money, my arms are full of freckles, and I’m wearing those Nine West flip flops with the little black…

Weekend Open Thread: Dating Horror Stories

I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had too many terrible dates. I’ve had plenty of awkward dates, but terrible ones? Eh, not too many. Once, when I was in college, I accepted an invitation to some media event from a guy I was interning for at the local Fox affiliate. He’d been hitting on me all semester, which was totally creepy, and when he asked me to this event a couple weeks before the end of the semester, I was afraid if I said no it would affect my grade, so I went with him. Plus, I thought it could be a good networking opportunity (it wasn’t). He showed up at…

Palate Cleanser: Miles, the Kitten

We need a palate cleanser after that last column, so here’s picture of Miles as a kitten. It’s blurry, I know, but it’s a favorite of mine. This was snapped the day I brought him home from the shelter where he’d been staying for a few weeks (Can you believe it took that long to adopt him out???). My understanding is that he had been hit by a car, someone found him and then brought him to the shelter where the vet performed minor surgery, amputating a couple of toes from his back foot that had been badly mangled. He has a slight limp these days, but other than that, no other…

Monday Open Thread: Anniversaries and Proposals

Today marks three years since Drew asked me to marry him. That’s us just after he popped the question and I said yes. He proposed in Central Park (where we were married a few months later) on a snowy, wintry Friday afternoon just after work. I met him at the entrance of the park which was, at the time, just a few blocks from where we were living. A week earlier I had given him my great-grandmother’s engagement ring (which I had procured from my mother over the recent holidays) and told him to have it sized and give it back to me when he was ready. So on February 6, 2009,…

He’s Here!!

Jackson Cyrus was born at 2:06 AM on Sunday, 10/9/11 after less than three hours of labor (two hours after we arrived at the hospital!). He came so fast, I didn’t even have time to get an epidural, which was definitely NOT part of my birth plan. Imagine the most excruciating pain ever and then multiply that by, like, 100, and that’s what natural childbirth feels like. But, holy smokes, was it worth it. I could — and probably will — stare at this baby for hours and hours and hours. In the meantime, I’ve got a bunch of pre-scheduled content lined up — including contributions from some excellent guest columnists —…

Miles Would Like Your Advice

Dear Internet, Wendy and the man are having a baby. I’ve been depressed about this for weeks. Sometimes I just sit in my little box by the window or under the bed where no one can bother me and I think and think. Mostly, I think about chicken parm subs and that day in the old apartment when I caught a mouse, but sometimes I also think about how much I don’t want a baby around here. It’s going to be a boy. Wendy has started buying clothes and stuff for the baby and sometimes she likes to put the clothes and stuff on me. And then she takes pictures. It’s humiliating….

It’s a…

Boy! Thirty-five percent of you were right. And, who knows, with Drew and me as parents, those of you who guessed “squirrel” may prove to be right as well. Anyway, here’s my little secret: we’ve “known” it was a boy for over two months, if you can believe that. Way back in the first week of April when I was only about 11 or 12 weeks pregnant, I had a sonogram where, for the first time, we saw what looked like an actual baby (as opposed to the blob it looked like at the first sonogram). As soon as we saw him, we both had a feeling it was a boy. But…

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