Let’s call this the “before” picture: bucolic bibliophillia at the local library.
And this would make a suitable “after” picure, if only I were capable of overcoming the strong disinclination to photograph my kids when they are in the midst of feeling big feelings. And by big I mean BIG. I mean, I [...]

Sick boy sleeps now, heals
Meanwhile, my sister’s firstborn
Keeps distant vigil

Yep: missing it twice.
I received as meager consolation the sense of genuine arrival as a parent, as I watched myself nobly sacrifice my own joy in the best interests of the chlidren. Because their happiness and well-being is my own. The girlie, no longer feverish, went off to see the last Sing-Along Sound [...]

Stephanie Coontz’ op-ed piece today in The New York Times, “Taking Marriage Private,” is very much worth a read (it’s short and to the point), and absolutely worth passing on to anyone who is a bit befuddled about the history and current limitations of that strange institution, marriage.
Some choice clips (all stuff that should be [...]

Reading, writing, Berkeley, CA.

To be sung to the tune of “Sound of Music” (picked up at the “hills are alive” part).

[Note: this is the unedited version of what was read at the 2008 BlogHer conference, where it had to clock in at a lean, mean, under-five minutes' read.]
 
It was a winter morning when we discovered we were pregnant with our first child — our first pregnancy following a very difficult, end-of-first-trimester miscarriage nine months before. [...]

I was reminded by the Task Force Weekly Update that arrived in my inbox today that this day is the 9th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (never mind the seven up there in the banner thingy, which is two years old). Here’s the Task Force’s statement in remembrance of the day. This day, most [...]