Swamped and crippled by endless drafts, pitches for magazines and newspapers, homework and as-yet unwritten commissioned pieces, I find myself sleepless in New York. And speaking of endless drafts, I’d like to draw your attention to a new rewrite of Attack of the Mothers. A head’s up: it’s tragic, it’s shocking and it’s violent. It… Continue reading Drafts, Pitches and Homework
As some of you know, I’ve been having a long drawn out fantasy about getting an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Sarah Lawrence College. Their writing program has famously churned out some epic writers. The school requires two recommendations as part of its application process. Which is of course why I sent four, no? The… Continue reading The MFA Dream
The assignment for my Personal Essay Writing class was to “write about a moment that taught you something unexpected about yourself.” Those of you that read and enjoyed my previous blog Living in the Spotlight about the “wetsuit” incident at Bally’s, you may enjoy the rewrite for my class: The Good Little Teacher That Could.… Continue reading The Good Little Teacher
A funny story happened on the way to the library, just not to me. My sister was loitering near the donated books at the Baruch College library. In the library’s trash pile, next to the donated discount books, she spied a brand-new shrink-wrapped book and went for it. Books are very important to my family,… Continue reading Losing my religion
“How do you feel about the fact that your baby looks nothing like you?” I asked a new acquaintance after being shocked by the dissimilarity between her face and the face of her interracial baby. While Mom is half-white, half-something else, baby is at least three quarters white and only 25% something else. Given these… Continue reading Baby Face
Friday morning, I went into withdrawal. I take nine medications daily. Funny enough, if you can find humor in having a pill case at 27 which of course I do, none of the medications are for fibromyalgia. After years of trying combinations of different medications (from mood stabilizers, anti-seizure meds, anti-inflammatories), including all the ones… Continue reading Withdrawl Weekend=Boring Blog
You know that strange feeling you get when you’re anxious and you feel like everyone is staring at you? When I get that feeling, everyone IS staring at me. I made an appearance today at the Bally’s pool for the first time. Not only were people staring at me, jaws dropped, whispers ensued and finally… Continue reading Living in the Spotlight
They can’t write. This symptom manifests itself in different variations at the university tutoring center where I spend my afternoons. I tutor mostly freshmen and the rare upperclassmen in writing. As the high school teacher made famous for packing on the writing assignments, students and teachers alike complimented my relentless drive to ensure that my… Continue reading The Subject-Verb Disagreement
We went to the Five Towns for Shabbos. Everything that could go wrong did. Traveling and fibromyalgia don’t really mix. Sitting for too long (so my muscles and bones atrophy and start to hurt unbearably), over-stimulation (from subway noise and train noise) and carrying heavy things (like our bags) all spell disaster. To get to… Continue reading A Rainy, Racist "MEXICAN HOUSEKEEPER" Kind of Shabbos
This is part of a larger, as yet unwritten, piece on depression. I told my psychiatrist, a zany baal teshuva, that I was in his office because I thought about killing myself. And my friends and family were pretty pissed with me. No, I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have one for death OR… Continue reading Suicidal Ideation
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 