This has been a big weekend for anniversaries.  The country and the world are remembering the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks and those we lost. 

My dad died a year ago on 09/09/10. I have been struggling with it in my own way.

I keep counting down the days...a… Read full post »

I live in the city on the second floor of a three-flat apartment building on an apartment building crowded street. Parking would be a problem, but low and behold, we purposefully got this apartment because it came with a parking space. Well, actually two. We only have one small car (a… Read full post »

I see him two or three times a week. Yesterday I looked up from my book as the El train doors opened in front of me, and Chris was standing there, waiting to get on the train. Not Chris, of course, but a guy just like him, one with his round… Read full post »

I have a confession to make.

I am obsessed with my cat. Truly, it’s embarrassing. I used to make fun of people like me. Since I got him two months ago, all I do is stare at him. I can’t look away. If I am home and awake, I… Read full post »

When I was growing up, we lived in the Chicago suburbs, 900 miles from the closest family. When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents moved from Philadelphia to the Chicago suburbs. They are still almost the only people in the family to move away from Pittsburgh. My mother found… Read full post »

The MCA was wall to wall with hipsters and yuppies and hipster yuppies. It smelled like high school, too much cologne, hair spray, and a tendril of body odor creeping in. 

“Shit,” I said, “what is going on?” I had just paid $25 with my friend Randy for admittance to… Read full post »

Adult children should never move back home. This is a fundamental truth up there with water is wet and the sun is hot. But it happens. It happens more often than we would like to admit. Who had to move back in with their parents at some point?  For whatever reason… Read full post »

When I Discovered Who I Was

There are many rites of passage that are quintessential to the Chicago experience, and in January of last year, I partook of a lesser-known rite of passage I could have done without.

I was walking along the street minding my own business, around… Read full post »