The bracelet tells someone where she is, honey. But it doesn’t tell you why.

Sitting still can be tough on a body, just as the shifting earth, and plunging and thawing temperatures can be hard on a pipe.

The world does not write enough odes
to in-betweenness—the way you can be
together / feel apart / apart / feel... more

I didn’t realize, when we were falling in love, that her father was a pathological extrovert.

3) Almost all seemingly-ruined meals can be salvaged if you add something. About 80 percent of the time, that something is wine. And if a meal is going to fail, let it fail spectacularly.

There is a ceramic pot full of my mother’s cigarette butts on the front steps of my childhood home, hot-glued back together by my father after one of our cats saw a chipmunk, and went for it.

The first time I went to the opera I went because I wanted to see a man go to hell. My dad got us tickets to... more

A dog would live too long. An axolotl would stink the house. Reptile equipment is confusing, complex. I’m allergic to cats. What I really... more

I have a tattoo on my back that’s almost a secret. My partner is the only one who has looked up close. It feels like it’s sometimes... more

“You should just ask yourself what your needs are,” Stephanie says. She raises an eyebrow, takes a sip of sangria, swallows... more

My dad says the sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day. He says if you ain’t the lead dog the scenery never changes. If you can’t run with the big dogs then stay on the porch. 

A stain; an unintended mark that, once made, resists removal. Inadvertent remnant and by-product, it is something made while we were looking elsewhere; evidence that our attention faltered, or that some vessel failed to function. 

The Friday after the sexual assault hearing of future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when we were all wondering if it mattered anymore what anyone said or did, I drove with a group of guys up into the Colorado mountains.

It was 2006, and I had just arrived in Florida for a marine biology excursion sponsored by a certain theme park that dabbles in ocean rehabilitation. To spare myself from any lawsuits, let’s just call it Ocean Planet.

I live a life of humiliation, but the most embarrassing, most shameful thing I ever did was get thin for a couple years.

When I arrive at my assigned campsite I find. cheerios scattered everywhere.

I watched my roommate kiss the man. It was my freshman year of college and I had the top bunk. I was too high to climb up to it.

In ancient Greece, it was believed that the uterus moved around inside the female body – like something winged

I don’t want to lead you on: this is not a love song. More of a reply to the note you did not write to the Dear Ashley column that also does not exist. 

Many a novel today is a screenplay with feelings. 

When we were five or six, well before that shot, we walked together in those woods. It was fall and we had just touched, for the first time that I can remember, in his room, under blankets. They were either 101 Dalmatians or Power Rangers-themed

After high school, I moved from Minnesota to Texas. Average annual number of Tornados in Minnesota: 41.9. Average annual number of tornados in Texas: 146.7. 

1. We are young and we snake through synagogue back hallways. Play truth or dare. Seven minutes in heaven. Stay away from the sanctuary.

As teenagers, my friends and I spent Friday nights driving backroads, throwing soda cans at street signs. The wind... more

I started reading My Struggle in the spring of 2014. I didn’t know what I was getting into, but... more