Dear, dear, fellow theatre-goers: I miss holiday shows a downright ridiculous amount. The sparkling snowflakes swirling around the Sugar Plum Fairy, the jolt of delicious fear before Jacob Marley appears, the sound design that makes your eyes weepy and your heart grateful? Yep. I miss those holiday shows. I miss holiday shows that I haven’t even seen yet, too. But if anyone knows how to turn lemons into a glitzy limoncello cocktail wearing a Santa hat, it’s the Chicago theatre {Read More}
Eleven years (of being surprised every single year).
October 29, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Hi Nora, Hey, happy birthday! You are 11. ELEVEN! (What kind of mother sits and marvels at the age her child is turning every single year, like the passage of time isn’t a constant and, well, trackable thing? Your mother, that’s who. Get used to it, kid. Among the plethora of things that ain’t my forte, emotional counting is among the worst.) This blog post feels different than any I’ve written in this space in the entirety of its 12 {Read More}
The story of the puppy.
October 25, 2020 By Leave a Comment
(Because if it’s not documented on the blog, do we really even have a puppy?) I grew up with not-quite-puppy dogs. My childhood was filled with slightly older rescues. Also dogs who were babies before I had entered the picture. And eventually my parents adopted a pup or two after I had exited the picture. P.J. had dogs, too, loyal family pets and veritable baskets full of shiny, licky, Golden Retrievers. But when we moved in together, we had cats. {Read More}
9: A post for Suzy, one of her very own.
October 4, 2020 By 1 Comment
(…Because when you’re the middlest middle who ever middled, “your very own” anything is cause for celebration.) 9: Dearest Susannah, Usually, I write you an open bloggy letter of sorts on your birthday. Usually, it’s filled with musings on the past year, hopes for the future, and high fives for our present. Usually, a year like the one we’ve had is not our “usual.” But wait- before I get completely ahead of myself- happy birthday, dear Suzy, happy birthday to {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 4: WTF Movers?!
August 6, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Part 4. Part Four?! Movers. Here’s the thing about movers. …Why. Why are they like that. (And oh my goodness, we’re SO CLOSE to the end of this saga! Related: Can you believe that I’m still blogging about this nonsense? You should see me in person. Theoretically, if we were able to have parties, I’d be real real fun at parties.) So. To catch up: Our moving “specialists” were jerks with a phone call returnability record akin to my middle {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 3: We Actually Leave.
July 30, 2020 By 1 Comment
Yes, people, we finally leave Chicago in this latest installment of We Are Never Moving Again. Now, where were we? Ah yes, we were seven hours into what was already promising to be the longest move of our lives. And our movers had brought the not-at-all-agreed-upon truck. And our “moving specialist” had gone radio silent. (Earth silent, really.) And the heart-wrenching day of Meaningful Goodbyes was quickly turning into a fire sale. Because. When the moving broker finally deigned to {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 2: So, moving brokers?
July 23, 2020 By Leave a Comment
OKIE doke. So. Can we talk about moving brokers in this one? Previously, on Chicago to the Berkshires (Part 1), our heroine found herself in a weepy puddle of nostalgia, compounded by a very real timeline of leavin’ town, with a nice dash of “haven’t slept for days n’ days” to really punch up the bawling. I think I did a fairly good job of portraying the feelings and emotions and everything else ramping up to the move…but what of {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 1: Goodbye, first home
July 16, 2020 By 2 Comments
(Today marks three weeks since we arrived at our new home in Massachusetts. More on THAT to come, because hoo boy. But for right now, a surprisingly/not super surprisingly hard one to write. I began this post the week before we moved but had to stop because…I had to stop. Stay tuned. Thanks in advance. Buckle up. Keep hydrating. And, you know, wear a mask.) An open letter to my home: Hey home, I know I’ve said some things in {Read More}
