Writing

In exciting news, I was recently privileged to have an essay published in Redbook Magazine. I don’t have a link to share yet, but I will come back and update this post as soon as I have one. Redbook likes their magazine to be in full circulation before they start posting free articles. Crazy business people. So feel free to go out and buy one! The bonus there is that you can also read another article they published, entitled “Frosty, Boozy, Easy Treats.” Who’s in?

I have always wanted to be a published writer. I’ve had ideas for years about the stories and essays I wanted to craft, and visions of a computer, a coffee cup, and a killer view as I worked (and made actual money) doing the thing I’ve loved to do for as long as I can remember.

As a kid, I played that board game Life, the one where you pick from five different possible careers, and I swear I thought those five were the only careers in existence. Actor, writer, teacher, lawyer, doctor. I suppose I knew there were also farmers and video store employees out there, but that never seemed like the life for me when I was 8 years old and signing my name all over my white bedroom furniture with a pencil, in hopes that I would one day be famous and the wooden boards would be worth something. I was not yet acquainted with the concept of hubris. Or, apparently, with how pencil erasers work. Read More>

|Categories: Life, Relationships | Tags: , , , | Permalink

Dad’s Day

On Saturday, Rob asked me not to make a big deal out of Father’s Day. I didn’t totally understand what this meant—no billboards?—but I tried to keep things chill yesterday by having a slight relapse in my pneumonia symptoms and sleeping all afternoon. Rob took Scarlett and some other visiting family members to the beach, while I stayed home with my own Dad.

So I think I can safely say that not only did I NOT make a big deal out of Father’s Day, I barely acknowledged the fact that it was a day at all. We did give him gifts, does that make things a little better?

I think that maybe one of the things my very private husband meant when he made his Father’s Day decree was that I shouldn’t feel it necessary to blog about him and his Dadness this week. But that is just too bad. This is a guy who works all day at a very demanding job, comes home, serves dinner, cleans it all up, bathes Scarlett, gets her ready for bed, and then when he is finally ready to relax for the night, has to help me with…everything.

Rob is a great Dad. A few months ago, I asked Scarlett to give me one word to describe him, and the word she chose was “Batman.” Read More>

|Categories: Life, Parenting, Relationships | Tags: , , , | Permalink

#Whatwouldyougive FAQs

Yesterday, I launched a new fundraising campaign called #whatwouldyougive. I did this because I wanted to create a fundraiser that helped people understand just a bit of what it feels like to be stripped of the basic abilities that ALS takes away. The things that most of us take for granted. The things that I absolutely took for granted until I received an ALS diagnosis when I was 33 years old. I’m 36 now, and even after all I’ve given up, I’m not giving up.

While most fundraisers center around a physical activity that requires ability, this one is about the things ALS takes away. During the week of August 1-8, team members spend a day (or an hour) giving up an ability in an effort to *begin* to understand what life is like for a person with ALS.

Examples: Have someone feed you meals or brush your teeth; type on your phone to communicate. This experience is a fraction of what people with ALS deal with, all day, every day. What would you give in order to live normally again? What would you give to end this disease? Each team member reaches out to their network to raise money around their efforts.

Our team is raising money for ALS TDI, the largest nonprofit biotechnology organization dedicated to developing effective treatments for ALS. With more attention and funding, we can find treatments and an eventual cure for ALS.

Here are a few FAQs to help people better understand the concept and how to get involved. All support is so appreciated! Read More>

|Categories: Life, Research, Vanity | Tags: , , | Permalink