Like many Jewish grandmothers, my grandmother's measure of success for her granddaughters is babies. (For her grandsons, it’s a medical degree and babies.) This is nothing new. But for Grandma Eva, a great-grandbaby holds special significance. She reminds me of this fact often, in ways she thinks are subtle, discreet. That’s great that you got into graduate school/are moving to New York/landed a teaching gig, but what about boys? Work isn’t everything, you know. Her…
"Tomorrow, if we go get rubber gloves – I'll pay for them – I can clean your stove. Not that it's not – you know what I mean!"
"Are these Tupperware clean or dirty, sweetheart?"
"[After seeing the contestant who custom-makes prosthetic limbs for people who have lost their limbs] What a nice thing to do. They say they can do it with those 3D printers now."
Hello, friends and well-wishers! I am safely in Utah, after driving through a handful of hailstorms in the dark and in the cold. I even managed to return an automotive favor to the universe by giving a jump to a stranded family outside of Tooele. Imagine that! Me, giving someone help with a car. Now I am where I belong: in Nicole's guest bedroom, eating the tacos she makes for me and trying to…
“Do people think it’s weird you’re not drinking?” a 27-year-old I had just met asked me at a recent Christmas party. “I mean, like, do you drink even a little bit? There has to be something in your cup.” (Ed. note -- Obligatory John Mulaney reference: "I know you don't drink.") The company party which I attended as a plus-one boasted an open bar, including some bootleg moonshine (it was in Florida). Most of the…
