Everyone knows how shiny new relationships are. We expect to feel the excitement, lust, and the need to be around the other person constantly. We start out navigating our new relationships by putting our best feet forward. We may try to hide our negative side. Our good parts glitter like diamonds for the other person to reflect at us.

Limerence, the space which includes all the intense romantic feelings you have for the other person, doesn’t last forever. It only lasts long enough for us to push our own needs aside for our romantic partners.

The biggest problem of being…

The “Mr. Man” Event

“Did you remember to pack the flashlights, Jelly?” Angelica’s boyfriend, Derek, asked for the twentieth time.

Angelica’s body tensed as she tersely called back, “I told you I did.”

Her fingers pulled on the deceptively heavy, heart-shaped locket hanging from her neck.

“ ’K, Babe.” Derek went back to sorting through his backpack.

She hated it when he called her Jelly and Babe. She lost count of how many times she asked him to stop. Once again, she wondered why she agreed to go on this trip with his friends at all.

She remembered that argument…

Essay Contest

On forms everywhere, I run into this question: What race are you?

The US census asks about race to update their vital statistics. Employers request this information to comply with labor laws. Medical questionnaires want to know for genetic profiling.

But — and it is a huge BUT.

Census information is used to gerrymander and racially profile entire neighborhoods. Instead of ensuring that vulnerable and poverty-stricken people receive the services they need, census data segregates them from better housing circumstances. Census statistics are weaponized to create fear about immigration. Phobias increase the scarcity mindset in this country.

Census statistics could…

If you listen carefully in Zombies, Run!, you might find a ladder, too.

Exercise during the pandemic became the get-away we all desperately needed during lock-down. Yoga, weight-lifting, and walking are my go-to escapes when I need to burn off frustration. I invested in Zombies, Run! several years before our current global epidemic. I appreciate the story lines and jump-scares when zombies grab for me.

Often, while being chased by zombies, a female voice informs me that I picked up a radio, underwear, or a sports bra. If I run or walk long enough, I can amass any number of…

They see capitalism as an empty pursuit. As a Gen-X-er, I know that I do.

I raised a Gen-Y-er and a Gen-Z-er respectively, and the thing we all have in common is that we're willing to work hard and diligently. What we aren't willing to do is kill ourselves for any corporations. Participation trophies aside (which, btw, is a Gen Y concept <ages 25-40>, not Gen Z <ages 9-24> that's being talked about), the real issue is corporate culture.

Corporate culture, by design, is about devaluing people for profit. And while current business schools teach "valuing" people to improve productivity…

Victoria’s Secret’s brand conjures images of scantily clad women on display. They paraded these women around wearing expensive bras and underwear only women under size 8 and less than a C cup could fit into. Not to put too fine a point on it, but VS’s choice product-wearer pool got smaller by the decade.

Nearly my first introduction to VS happened right after my bridal shower in 1993. I decided I wanted something fun, so I ambled into the store. The tiny salesperson asked me if I needed something. I informed her that I was looking for lingerie, bras, and…

Over the years, I’ve taken my dogs to the veterinarian dozens of times for wellness dog checks, accidental poisonings, and other less fun things. When doggoes reach a certain age, they’re considered senior citizens. As we all know, the older someone gets, the more their body gloms onto health issues like a remora on a shark’s back.

Lover attained the ripe youthful age of thirteen. He achieved his level-up, so I brought him in to the vet for his reward of shots and getting felt up. He’s not particularly fond of what people do to him at the vet, but…

Minding my personal business is a life strategy of avoiding things I shouldn’t worry or care about. I function in life by addressing issues as they come up so I can move on anxiety-free. I seldom go wrong with this approach.

Last year, when we sold our home, I faced extraneous paperwork to extricate us from our previous address. I contacted multiple utilities and updated them about our new address and who the next owner would be. My focused diligence played a part in being completely done with our house by September 2020.

Or so I thought.

In December of…