"Wait. You went to PRINCETON?" the woman exclaimed. Then she shook her head. "I can't believe you only work part-time. Shouldn't you be off, like, conquering the world or something?" We had covered a fair bit of territory at this point, this rather more, shall we say, Sandbergian mother and I, on the sunny green where our children played: work habits (primarily), bedtime routines, daycare experiences. After educational pedigree we moved on to hobbies and I mentioned I maintain a blog. "How many readers do you have?" Not too many. About 600 hits a month. "Do you monetize at all?" I ... [READ MORE]
My Kingdom, and a Half-Bath
April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
"I saw a slug on my walk this morning, LittleMan. Do you think he knows Jabba the Hutt?" "Don't be silly, Mommy! There are no big slugs like Jabba the Hutt in this neighborhood. Jabba lives on Tatooine. We live on a planet called San Francisco." Oh, LittleMan, you have no idea: Long long ago, in a far away galaxy, there was a tiny, shiny planet called San Francisco. Known throughout space as the last refuge of liberals, vegans, hippies, gays, and tech junkies, for the first decades of the new Millennium, the Planet San Francisco had been encased in a shimmering housing ... [READ MORE]
Lean On Me
March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Boy, she's pretty much inescapable these days, that Sheryl Sandberg. Lately I feel like she done leaned right on into my livingroom. The other day at the gym I was reading Time's cover article on Sandberg while watching a CNN piece on Sandberg that referenced a Vanity Fair article on Sandberg (in an issue which perhaps ironically has Taylor Swift on the cover...contrasts). The woman's gone meta. I have no real quarrel with Sandberg. The Mommy Wars aren't really my thing, and anyway, she's obviously talented, smart, and ambitious and her career savvy has paid off handsomely, and why ... [READ MORE]
Mompetition
January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I have a couple of friends -- real friends, women I genuinely like and enjoy spending time with -- who for a while I was seriously considering breaking up with on Facebook. I know that sounds passive-aggressive, and maybe it is, but I sort of reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. Facebook is a truly, deeply weird planet. I mean, I am aware that every Facebook page is a carefully curated, highly edited version of real life; a place where our children's foibles are just cute as beans, and our hair looks good, and we're perpetually on vacation or at the pumpkin patch or scoring a ... [READ MORE]
Candid Camera
January 9, 2013 by 1 Comment
My sister had a baby four months ago. One evening about seven weeks in, she called me in a bit of a fluster. Her in-laws wanted to take them out for dinner, avec bebe, and the Little Niece simply wasn't having it. "So do you just, like, never go out after 6:30pm?" my sister asked. "Are we seriously having this conversation?" I replied. "When, in the last 4.5 years, have you ever seen me out after 6:30pm? Obviously I never go out after 6:30pm. Unless I have a babysitter, or a hall pass." "I guess so..." she hesitated, but I could hear her thoughts. "You totally thought that wouldn't ... [READ MORE]
What I Know Now
December 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
I remember where I was when Columbine happened. I was sitting, with my then-boyfriend-now-husband in the Rotunda Cafe at Princeton and the news was closed-captioned on the small TVs above the coffee counter. And I was appropriately aghast and appalled and saddened as befits a 20-something when Serious News Happens. I remember where I was when Beslan happened. I was living in London, and working part-time, and I watched the raid unfold on the BBC and I cried that night, into my husband's shirt on the bench at the pub next to our flat, that people do these things to other people's ... [READ MORE]
Rear Window
November 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
My first apartment in San Francisco was on Franklin Street on the border between Pacific Heights and Russian Hill. A small but stately building with musty old hallways but beautiful art-deco apartments, painted white and full of windows. Technically speaking, I had a roommate, a college friend, but she mostly lived with her boyfriend; in the 10 months we "cohabitated" I think she spent two nights there...and that was sort of awkward, because obviously, it was my home at that point. But I will not complain about any of this because I got a very good deal in the bargain. It was the height ... [READ MORE]
