It always amazes me how much goes on in a conversation besides what’s actually being said. We speak volumes with looks, gestures, expressions, shrugs, a tilted head, rolled eyes, to the point where the most banal exchange can in fact convey an entirely different meaning. [Insert obligatory Annie Hall reference here.] Case in point, this [...]

When I quit my law firm job, I made a silent pact with myself: No matter what happened, no matter how things panned out, I would never say no to an opportunity that came up – even if I had absolutely no clue in hell how to do it once I’d said yes. In the [...]

It’s been a few months now since the Great Brooklyn Exodus, and we’ve started to settle into the new neighborhood. Once I got over the little things – stepping outside minus the bombardment of yellow cabs; walking more than eighteen paces to reach the nearest convenience store/dry cleaner/ATM; buying birth control at the local [...]

There’s a sort of emotional relief in a nasty flu. Somewhere amid all the throbbing, hacking, sweating and occasionally wishing for death (or, at least, forced hibernation), you realize that you’ve finally reached a deep quiet. The germs pillaging your healthy cells have shut down the unnecessary sections of your brain, the ones that run [...]

Boyfriend and I consider ourselves reasonably intelligent when it comes to language (”reasonably” being a term packed with wiggle room). Combined, we’ve solved Sunday crosswords, aced AP English, won eighth grade spelling bees and written college papers on Nietzsche’s influence on modern literary theorists. Over the course of two beers and a sandwich, he [...]

“Everyone, listen up. This is your safety, this is your ammo cannister,” intones our referee, a husky teenager wearing full camouflage, combat boots and a red bandana around his thick neck. “Each of you has a bag of pellets. You load the gun by filling the cannister.”
Ten of us nod obediently. It’s the 40th birthday [...]

So, after almost a year of freelancing, (AKA spending my days in t-shirts on my couch, my spine slowly coiling as I hunch over a laptop, trolling for my next writing gig), I’m officially taking a job. The Huffington Post is “making an honest blogger out of me,” so to speak, and I’ll be writing [...]

When I was a lawyer, obsessing over monthly billables and spending at least twenty minutes every night calculating how many more hours I’d have to average per day in order to make my quota and/or bonus, I lamented not being able to travel, just take off and leave, regardless of schedules, approved dates or number [...]

I like to cook. I’m happy to admit it. In law school I would pass the time in Fed Courts or Trusts & Estates looking up articles in “Food & Wine” and “Cooking Light,” in between reading juicy personal emails over other peoples’ shoulders or watching the online Paris Hilton sex video. Since moving to [...]

Since I’ve tossed off my desk chains and abandoned the corporate world, I’ve made an effort to get out and interact with other sectors of the city. So much goes on in Manhattan outside of Midtown highrises, and why live here if you experience none of it. So last night, when Boyfriend and Media Friend [...]