Roya’s baptism was held at Western Presbyterian Church on November 3rd. Western has a special place in my heart. I first set foot on the church grounds when I volunteered at Miriam’s Kitchen in 1994. Western is also the place where I met my dear friend and Roya’s godmother, Amy, across a crowded pew. During […]
My Mom was known for sending cards and notes to friends and family. She loved doing so and passed that on to me. She also instilled in me (or was it drilled in me?) the notion that every gift required a handwritten thank you card. Even before Roya was born, I knew that I wanted […]
I first heard about Moshe Zusman in 2010 from friends who were amateur photographers in DC. They espoused the virtues of his talents, which are easily apparent when you see his work. I met Moshe several weeks later at Fashion for Paws. I was surprised at how amiable he was. That was reaffirmed when he casually […]
During the Rodney King protests in 1992, I didn’t understand how the protest on my campus related to me. I think of numerous times in my teens and 20s when I did not speak up, made biased-filled assumptions or turned a situation that was not about me into a tear-filled response. In my junior year in […]
R: I have a story to tell you. Me [calling from the kitchen]: Okay, you can tell me. R: No, I’d like you to sit down next to me while I tell you. [I move to sit down next to her.] So, back when I was in Pre-K, they used to open up the doors […]
How have I approached unpacking some popular children’s books with my daughter? Check this post out for why this is important and some general critical thinking strategies. Now, let’s get started with The Bad Seed by Jory John. In this book, a darker-colored, more masculine presenting seed is criticized for being bad. Most of the […]
I see you with your head tilting to the side and your eyes expressing pity. I hear you with your well-intentioned “I’m so sorry” comments…your “I can’t imagine how tough this is for you” rhetoric…your “Don’t you want to get married so she can have a Dad?” questions. If I know you well enough, I’ll […]
10 years ago this week, I sat down at my laptop and clicked on WordPress.com. I didn’t think much about my handle and template, as I set up a blog. Within an hour, I wrote my first post about getting asked out by a younger man and pressed publish. The act of blogging was simple. […]
It was October 2014. Roya was up two-three times a night every night. I was in my first semester as a full-time faculty member and teaching three classes. The nanny that I had hired for the year decided to leave the DC area. I managed to piece together a schedule with four babysitters – all […]
It was Fall 2008 when I first saw her. My life was so different then. This was before the blog, when I was finishing my graduate thesis and planning to return to legal services. I had been thinking about moving to a pet-friendly apartment and getting a dog, and I kept coming back to this photo on HART’s […]