a good friend called and said, “read the wednesday wars. it is everything you want a book to be.”

i didn’t ask for clarification at the time, instead dutifully read the book, and am here to report that it is everything you want a book to be: funny, sad, intelligent, a tad ignorant, full of shakespeare.

in [...]

i had one of those weeks. husband’s car went kaput. i did dinner and bedtime by myself every night. i spent a lot of time watching screaming children. a lot of the children screaming were mine. by the weekend, i had effectively disintegrated.

and then i overheard this lovely little game from my children.

h says to [...]

henry was riding his bike to school today. through the field. you know, like we do.

he sort of slowed down. “what is this stuff, mom?”

i wasn’t sure what he was talking about. i told him that. [answers like this do not deter him. it is inconceivable to him that i might not be able to [...]

it’s about the time of year when i start feeling homesick. (i also feel homesick during all the major holidays, the heat of the summer, the tinglings of spring — pretty much i’m a big baby.)

and because i’m a hopeless humanities sort, this is a moment for much too intense self reflection. what is homesickness, [...]

i never know what to say on 9/11.

but my heart beats for the people then and the people between and the people now who live on my street, who stop with me at the mailbox, and are missing someone, or something: arms, legs, eyes.

my heart beats with hope and love. and, as always, there is [...]