Recently a poem that my son Leo wrote 10 years ago resurfaced in my Facebook Memories. He was a senior in high school and students were asked to write poetry about the islands of trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. I was blown away by his poem when he first showed it to us, and still impressed to reread it 10 years later. He uses potent language and imagery to call attention to this important and often-ignored issue. And I love the term “iLand,” as if Apple has taken over the world. Continue reading
Category: Essay (Page 7 of 12)
This weekend I went to my first Fat Splash — a private pool party for fat people. The event was sponsored by Cake Plus-Size Resale, a new-ish consignment shop in Minneapolis with a fabulous selection of clothes and a safe, body-positive space for shoppers. My daughter Gennie eagerly snatched up two tickets for us when they went on sale, which was smart because the party sold out in 12 hours, and an additional party sold out quickly too.
Over the years, I’ve heard about fat pool parties in various books, articles, blogs, Facebook groups in other states, and more recently, saw one on the recent fat-positive Hulu show “Shrill” (which is based on the wonderful book by Lindy West). These parties looked fun and freeing, but also far-away, unreachable. I didn’t think I’d ever get to go to one… Continue reading
For such a short month, February has felt long this year. Almost all of my time has been spent sitting in my house, in an armchair, recovering from my second knee replacement on January 29th. I knew how this was going to be. I’d tell people, “February is a good month to stay inside.” Which is true. The reality of the experience isn’t as cozy as that sounds. Continue reading
Discovery: you can do a lot of Reading on the Train!
Last weekend we took a four-day trip to Chicago, our first time taking an American train. We wanted a little get-away before I have my second knee replacement at the end of January, and we hadn’t been able to travel for quite awhile due to my chronic-pain-mobility circumstances. The train seemed like a good experiment, and we had a very simple itinerary to not overtask my remaining bad knee.
I admit that I’m a somewhat anxious traveler — traveling is all about having new experiences, and I can get to fretting because of the lack of certainty in traveling scenarios. However, I don’t want my fear to hold me back, so I go into research mode to learn what I can, and then try to calm down my freaky little lizard brain. Continue reading
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