the road ahead (6w2d)

I broke out the journal the Dilettante gave me when I was pregnant with Ben, to try to recall details, other than my famous story of lower abdominal pains while listening to the State of the Union address in Jan ‘04.
The symptoms are similar, though some details are making themselves clearer. For example, I do [...]

Something that might become a baby

Ben had been asking why my tummy was so big. (Mommy has been eating lots of cookies.) He has babies on his mind, as his best friend at school has a new baby sister, and he has been telling me he’s like one too. And the kid’s alert; there’s been baby planning talk around the [...]

and then, I got it.

I hadn’t seen my father since my 38th birthday, many many grey hairs ago. Before they unionized. Before Ben was crawling, or eating anywhere except Mom’s 24-7 Dairy bar. Before waiters stopped carding H. Before Ben’s first food, steps, words, animal sounds, full night’s sleep. Before my father got new knees, and remarried.
The reasons were [...]

cv, meet la vita

I’ve been doing public communications work for two decades. Even though it doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes from time to time, the communications challenge I face now is huge and basic. In a town where I have few local connections, and where I am an exmat (Boston is my single-motherland), how does one get [...]

lumps and medallions

“Can you feel that? At two o’clock?”
Pamela, my np, was looking at the ceiling, her fingers on something she thought didn’t belong in the breast exam portion of my yearly physical. I tried to find the something, but didn’t quite.
“And the cancers in your family were?”
Stomach, malignant melanoma. I had a dysplastic nevus at 23 [...]