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Margaret
I bring my kids to swim lessons on Monday afternoons. The swim school is great but overwhelming: too many harried parents and chaotic, wet children. There’s a toddler and father pair who are always there at the same time as us. The little girl must be around two years old and her name is Margaret.…
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Spring Cleaning
I’m doing some spring cleaning around the house. This is the first time I’ve ever done an intentional deep clean in the spring, and I am largely motivated by our time spent at a Disney World resort last week. This place is a real dump compared to Saratoga Springs! It’s amazing how much time this…
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Happy Little Hops
My kids are eight and ten years old. They both have this strange habit of adding in happy little hops as they walk. Four steps, hop, five steps, skip, three steps, hop. It’s very cute, and I know it won’t last. I would like to remember this.
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Hot Topic
One day you’re twenty-two years old and walking out of Hot Topic for what must be the last time. And all of a sudden, you’re forty and walking back in to buy a Demon Slayer shirt for your anime-obsessed kid.
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Documentary Review/ The Pez Outlaw
High on entertainment value but largely lacking in depth, I enjoyed this quick peek into the life of Steve Glew, the “Pez Outlaw.” Steve Glew spent many unhappy years working as a machinist in Michigan before he began importing European Pez dispensers to sell to US collectors in the 1990s. His rise to Pez infamy…
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Documentary Review/ Torn
Emotionally raw and superbly edited, you don’t have to be a fan of climbing culture to enjoy this documentary about family, grief, and love. Alex Lowe, arguably the world’s best climber, was killed in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999, leaving behind his wife, Jenni, and three young sons. Alex’s best friend and favorite climbing…
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Fatty on a Treadmill
I signed up for Facebook in 2004. Back then it was still new, and slowly opening up to various colleges across the country. I navigated the site on my trusty Dell desktop computer. I noticed that an acquaintance of mine had joined a new group, something along the lines of “Hey Fatty Get Off My…
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We’re going to Disney World.
We’re going to Disney World next month and instead of turning into a proper Disney Adult I’ve turned into a Disney Monster. Ask me about my attractions spreadsheet. It’s color-coded and notes whether or not the queue has air-conditioning and if the ride is going to give me motion sickness. Ask me how many times…
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Lines I Like
I am currently reading George V: Never a Dull Moment by Jane Ridley and am very much enjoying it. Ms. Ridley notes that within George’s childhood household it was normal to refer to people and places as “dear little” or “poor little.” She quotes Marie, Queen of Romania, who wrote that this practice made it…
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The Grammys 2023
I don’t usually watch the Grammys but my girl Brandi Carlile was up for a couple big awards this year and my other favorite, Kacey Musgraves, was scheduled to perform so I grudgingly stayed up past my 9:30 PM bedtime with the rest of the nation so as to enjoy the outfits, the performances, the…