Proudly serving unpolished working motherhood, with bipolar depression & hilarity on the side
Why, hello, holiday season. Here you ARE, again, in your blinding lights and screamy ads about buying stuff and random elves sprouting all over the place. Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s a little much for those of us who find ourselves on the struggle bus this time of year. Also – I […]
The day was dazzling and I tried to rise halfway to meet it. Children’s laughter floated up into the air over the sparkling pool water as I drifted by on my daughter’s unicorn float. And right there, in the middle of Summer at the Pool: The Movie, the horrible little thought invaded like a demon […]
Skating and I fell in love in a vulnerable place. For me, that is. I get that it’s not reciprocal or anything. I’m not that far gone. How vulnerable was this place, you say? Well, back in my college years while being pummeled by depression, I also fell top-of-my-head-to-tips-of-my-toes in love with the person I […]
Our men were not allowed to be alone. They needed to be bodily escorted by at least three of us in order to interact with anyone outside the tribe. We did not touch people outside the tribe and we did not make eye contact with them. Simple rules. We all understood the rules. The problem […]
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll slit your throat in the middle of the night?” These were the fears of the neighbors to Mayme Czajka when she fell in love with Lawrence Voletti in 1936, an era when “Italian” was synonymous with “mafia”, or at least it was in their first-generation Polish neighborhood. Mayme knew this for […]
After I left the psychiatric hospital, I went to mental health grad school. Every weekday morning I’d leave my newborn with my husband or a sitter, head across town and spend the morning in classes and groups with my fellow recoverees. We’d start the morning with an optional spirituality/mindfulness type thing, which I liked the […]
If you’re reading this, I salute you. You have made it through a year in this sci-fi movie that’s not a movie, that’s your life and my life and everyone else’s life in the time of COVID-19. If your science-fiction life-year has been particularly horrific – I’m so sorry. I wish I could do or […]
I’m sitting here on Martin Luther King Junior Day, pondering whether it’s safe to go downtown like I’m supposed to this week because armed far-right extremists may be there too, protesting the outcome of the presidential election. The irony is not lost on me that, after the past year of pandemic and protests and rioters […]
When my brother was little and not jazzed about eating dinner, he’d say, “I didn’t order this.” My mother, being an overaccommodater, would sweep in and replace the offending item. You have probably noticed that life by and large does not work like this. If the role of my mother were being played by life, […]