This morning, as soon as our nanny arrived to take Hudson, I made my Friday march down to my basement office, wadded up a hoodie for a pillow, and decided to sleep on the floor.x No, I wasn’t booting up my computer and reviewing my incoming emails, but I felt like, through the absence of actual work, my proximity to work might be enough. Maeby, who is unaccustomed to me being quite so literally on her level, responded gamely—gamely in the sense that she flopped right beside me so her whiskers could twitch against my cheeks while we both tried to rest.
My Ship
Posted onI have a time sensitive window in which to see a shooting star.
And the time constraint is: how long does it take for my melatonin to kick in.
I’m wrapped in an old rescued creature comfort—the M&M blanket I stole from my sister, with bare feet on November pavement, and I’m looking up through the clouds in vain hope.
Thoughts on miscarriage and the election, which are not the same.
Posted onI only slept because I took a melatonin supplement. But when I wasn’t sleeping, I was thinking about Pennsylvania. And polling. And uncertainty. And protest.
But, I woke up this morning, too early, with a book of bad poetry next to my bed, with the most beautiful sympathy card ever written:
On Miscarriages in October
Posted onOn the night of my miscarriage, I made dinner from Hello Fresh, and Jeremy moved a stack of 159 bricks into the garage. I took solace in the measured portions, the controlled steps, and the predictable outcome. Jeremy liked the neat stacking.
Still, I burnt the dinner.
The Boiling Point
Posted onHudson woke up with a 104 degree fever this morning. It doesn’t need a metaphor, it is what it is. Hot, unblemished baby skin.
But for me, every degree above 98 felt like a degree above boiling point. I was boiling water, splashing through the lid of a pot and landing with a sizzle-crash onto the stove.
3AM Jeremy
Posted onI just watched my husband lift his dying father up the stairs.
It wasn’t a moment I planned for in life. Or maybe I planned for it at age 51 instead of 31, but I don’t think so. Fathers die only in abstraction. They aren’t supposed to die for real.
I haven’t planned for this moment, but whether any of us likes it or not, the moment is here.
The Mask
Posted onI wore a mask to walk the dog today.
On the surface, it was embarrassing. Here’s me, wearing my mask, more anxious than passersby who weren’t wearing theirs. I felt uglier, and geekier—it didn’t feel like a super hero’s mask.
Big Things in my Heart
Posted onThere are big things in my heart.
Unreachable things. I keep burrowing. Rather than turn on my shows at night, rather than drown my day in noise that distracts and diverts, I sit in my bed and try to listen to the big things happening here in my heart.
This Is Your Hug.
Posted onI had an unexpectedly harrowing experience this evening.
Hudson was squeezing my wrist tenderly, which he sometimes does when I read him a story. Tonight’s story was a new one, a quaint little book about a small child narrating to what seems to be another small child about how to survive in the city. It’s a cute book, but sometimes the child’s advice seems questionable: Yes, laundry vents do often smell good, but is it advisable to nap underneath one? And should you really just let yourself into the neighbor’s home to listen to her practice the piano?
It Isn’t Quite Fear
Posted onThere’s a large, rather alarming red stain on the sidewalk outside my apartment. After several moments of examination, a few oregano flecks told its story. What is now a sidewalk stain was once a jar of tomato sauce, perched too precariously in an overfull bag of unperishables, moved with haste from car to front door.