Clik here to view.
One Hour at a Time
I had been telling myself that once I went back to work and I was on a schedule, I would have more time to write. But September came and went, and as October began, I kept finding excuses to not open...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hurricane Prep
School has already been cancelled. Mass transit has stopped running. By the time this is posted, we will have a better idea of where Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall. We won’t know how...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cleaning Up
Day 1: You start with the furniture, moving it out piece-by-piece. Big Nana was the last one to decorate this apartment, so it’s her cherry wood stuff that you’re trying to save. There’s the chair...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shop till you drop. And then shop some more.
I have a problem. A costly problem. Every year, I pride myself on the fact that all of my holiday shopping is done by the first week in December. I have a meticulous checklist that gets updated every...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Christmas That Keeps On Giving
Saturday morning, I went to my parents’ house with one of my best friends, her husband, and her three kids for gift exchanging. We had bagels with cream cheese, muffins, coffee, and juice. Monday...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carving Out Time
Last night, I opened up Scrivener for the first time in what seemed like months and looked at my work in progress. I had written some of it during the creative writing class I taught in my middle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Slump
Have you ever been in a slump? For instance, let’s say there’s a leak coming into your apartment, and then you get a rejection letter, and then you pull your back out and can barely move. Or when your...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sandcastle Destroyer or Girl Vs. Crocodile
It all started in a tent. In the middle of a living room floor. I was putting the two older children I was watching to bed. In a tent. In the middle of the living room. Seriously. The boy wanted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Inspired by History
The Mill Stone In the late 1980s to early 1990s, I was part of a nature guide program through the public school district I attended. As a fourth-grader, I was trained to lead classes through the Mill...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bare
A few weeks ago, I went to my parents’ house in Bergen Beach, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that was massively flooded by the superstorm Sandy. I was going out there to paint the ground floor of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Car Troubles
It wasn’t until after we had crossed the country, driving west from New York to Chicago on the Interstate, then Chicago to Seattle on US-2. It wasn’t until after we had seen Wisconsin, Minnesota,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Summer Vacation Room Renovation
A classroom doesn’t just happen. Yes, there’s a room, and there are tables, and there are chairs. Bookcases, books, windows, a door. But a classroom — a real, amazing, inspiring classroom — takes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Contemplation on New Beginnings
In July of 2005, I returned home to find there had been a fire in my apartment. I felt like my entire world had been destroyed, and I was left to start over. A few weeks ago, I was on my way home,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Classroom Visit featuring Allyson Valentine
On October 4th, my group of after-school creative writers had the privilege of welcoming my friend and VCFA classmate Allyson Valentine to our class. For an hour, she dazzled the sixth and seventh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NaNoWriMo And All Its Glory
There’s a pile of papers on my desk that desperately needs to be graded. There’s a pile of laundry in the hamper that needs to be washed. There’s a pile of mail on the dining room table that needs to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Meeting, 25 Years in the Making
In December of 1988, I opened up my first letter from my new penpal. “Dear Danielle,” I read, “I am Heela Naqshband. I am 9 ½ years old. I have very dark brown hair.” First letter, December 1988. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Polar Vortex Shmortex
I spent this past week at a house on Sea Island, GA. The seventy degree weather and sunshine and sand were a much-needed break from the never-ending Northeast Winter of Doom. I had started to have an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cruising Across the Page
Writing is a lot like driving. Or should I say driving is a lot like writing? Sometimes, it’s all stop and go, like driving in the city. Rarely, you’ll catch a synchronized string of green lights,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
And teachers rejoice…or do they?
It’s the end of the school year. Again. As June approaches, New York City teachers rejoice. Or at least that’s what most people think. In fact, like so many of my peers, I go through a spectrum of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Secret Nighttime Reading
As a teenager, I often was awake well past midnight reading, but I also had endless amounts of energy and could function the next morning. These days, not so much. If I’m not asleep by 11p.m., the...
View Article
