My beloved home state won’t survive four more years of Trump
I was born in the middle of a snowstorm in Charleston, West Virginia. If you live on the Eastern Seaboard, you may have driven through my hometown traveling north or south on I-77. Perhaps you once memorized its name as the state capital of West Virginia. If you’ve never been there, what you should know is that it can be achingly beautiful, with its stunning riverside Capitol grounds set between picturesque mountains. …
Please, God, let me break this cycle for my children
I have a job. I write for a major digital platform that attracts 82 million unique readers each month.
Mostly due to my other job, though, I’m only able to cram in 28 hours of work per week writing. Therefore, I’m paid hourly and I’m not eligible for insurance.
I took on my second job four years ago. It’s a very demanding line of work — that’s why I can only work 28 hours in my first job. Here are some of the requirements of my second gig:
- Full-time companion, 24/7/365 (with occasional, though not regular, breaks)
- Meal preparation, three meals a…
Are you more likely to respect my journey now than if I tell you I have a mental illness?
Viewing mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety as different from physical ailments costs those of us who do battle with them daily — and society — more than just our health.
I’m emerging from a deep depression that was about four months in length. How do I realize I’m coming out of it? Only because I now know how sick I have been over this period of time. …
What to do when you’re only feeling festive-ish.
Celebrating Christmas when you have little kids is the best.
When our boys were small, my ex and I would stay up until 4 am wrapping presents and assembling the Thomas the Tank Engine set under the tree. While it was exhausting, I can remember being filled with glee in anticipating the boys’ reaction when they awoke, and it was every bit as good as I imagined…and then some.
Those days were just the best. I felt like the Grinch as my “small heart grew three sizes” each Christmas we celebrated. Their pure, unadulterated joy made my heart full. …
It’s not quite what you think.
In the United Kingdom’s December election, Boris Johnson, the Conservative candidate for Prime Minister, was re-elected to that seat by virtue of his party’s landslide victory. Johnson, the brash, crazy-haired leader with a casual relationship with the truth, is seen by many on both sides of the Atlantic as an avatar for our own President Trump. Johnson and Trump have many commonalities in policy, the two generally get along famously, and President Trump has repeatedly declared his support for the somewhat similarly-coiffured Johnson.
It’s not out of line, then, to wonder what the Prime Minister’s re-election portends for our forthcoming election here in the States. …
The House debates
From Dictionary.com:
Debate: to argue or discuss (a question, issue, or the like), as in a legislative or public assembly
We all knew it would happen. That didn’t make it any less disappointing to witness. When the Judiciary Committee took up a debate over the Articles of Impeachment Wednesday night, it was not a debate at all. Rather, it was the Congressmen and -women on the Committee — from both sides of the aisle — simply listening to themselves talk. I doubt very sincerely whether any listening to each other was done.
I say this because, as I wrote yesterday, Speaker Pelosi and her team did an exquisite job keeping the Articles pruned down to cover easily demonstrable substance matter. Everything in both Articles certainly occurred. The intent within and behind the actions of Article 1 — if one restricts oneself to the content of the July 25 call alone — can be parsed along party lines if you hold your head just right and squint hard enough. Article 2, however, is about as clear-cut and straightforward as you can get. …
What it feels like to sense a second nervous breakdown coming on — and successfully evade it
I don’t remember much from last Tuesday, but I do know I definitely shouldn’t have been driving. I was crying too hard and my mind was so scattered I could barely concentrate. Trails of mucus snaked down my face. My brain refused to process the choice between going to my psychiatrist’s appointment or the emergency room. I wailed like the hurt animal that I was.
Worst of all, my elderly mother was in the car with me. I gripped the steering wheel like her life depended on it, an ice-cold finger of consciousness shooting up my spine, alerting me that the worst thing I could do would be to hurt my mother by allowing something to happen to the car. …
Wherein the House puts its cards on the table.
Yes, I am a liberal. I’m also an unabashed fan of the Constitution, which has been getting trampled all over of late…oh, say, since January of 2017. In that light, in issuing Articles of Impeachment yesterday, the House of Representatives said “No more. Not on our watch.”
Some would say that this should all be settled in the election next year. …
I chose not to tell her the truth about my experience with the man she was going to marry.
As we sat together in the Mexican restaurant that day over margaritas and chips and salsa, the nerves were palpable. I’d spoken with Shelley on a few occasions before, but I was horrifically anxious to sit with her one-on-one; amusingly, in a situation where I perceived her to have all the power, she later told me that she felt intimidated.
To her credit, Shelley insisted on getting to know me before she married my ex-husband. …
It’s not fast, and it is challenging, but it works for everyone.
Back in the late 1990s, I was the account executive and public relations manager on the Mizuno Golf North America account, the largest account in the house at my agency, when I started hearing a lot of buzz about something called variously “the internet” or “the World Wide Web.” Given that we didn’t have a dominating paid media budget compared to our competitors, and that the superior technology story of the company’s products was their unique selling point, I thought I’d investigate the possibilities for promoting Mizuno in this new world called “cyberspace.”
The only problem was that back in that day and age, online marketing was brand new. Few people outside the major population hubs knew anything about it — and I wasn’t based in a major population hub — so I was unsure how to go about getting my client online. Then, I had a major lightbulb moment: All the smart computer people are in California, I thought. I’ll just call the World Wide Web. …
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