Don’t Respond to Phone Calls from the IRS
This morning I received a call on my cell phone. The incoming call had a 347 area code. A young-sounding woman asked for Regina Martin and told me she was calling from the Internal Revenue Service. For a few seconds I started to sweat, but then I remembered that the...
“I Am Old.” Say it
The other night I was at the meeting of a non-profit that works with refugees that have recently come to Chicago. The room contained about three people in their 20s, maybe three people in their 30s and three of us who were over 45. One of the young women in her 20s...
Thank You, Friends
I'm very grateful to my friends. I had a bout of depression in the past week and they responded in just the right ways. They asked how they could help and offered to talk, but they didn't give me a pep talk or keep asking why I was depressed. They just let me know...
My Skull Ring
This is a photo of my hand wearing my current favorite ring. I love this ring because I find the idea of death comforting. For me, life is busy, loud, often overwhelming and too often painful. Life is full of people moving quickly and too many things to do and not...
Enjoying a Book about The Twilight Zone
I think I've watched all five seasons of the original Twilight Zone series enough times to be able to read this book. It's Stewart Stanyard's Dimensions Behind The Twilight Zone with a foreward by Neil Gaiman. It was a gift from my sister and it's not only a good...
How To Cancel Service
I've been having Internet connection problems for weeks now (it started on 20 March) and have finally had it with Comcast. I'm cancelling service this week and switching back to AT&T. I only left AT&T because Comcast had a good deal back in 2013 when I moved...
Moon
Tonight the full moon slices through veils of clouds, glowing brighter than a communion wafer.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Rape Culture
A man wrote, “If you are a man, you are part of rape culture.” A man wrote it!
Being Divorced Is Great
During my protracted spinsterhood (didn't marry til I was 41), I did a lot of online dating. Being single-never-married felt like a benefit, or at least a neutral quality, when I was in my late 20s and early 30s, but that changed. By the end of my 30s, being...
12-Step Programs Are Not Great
The April 2015 issue of The Atlantic has an article called The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the article Gabrielle Glaser, author of Her Best Kept Secret: Why Women Drink - And How They Can Regain Control, discusses the ways that Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)...
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
Last night I watched one of Robin Williams' last movies: The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. I don't know when he finished the movie, but it was released in May 2014 and came out on video-on-demand (VOD) in July 2014, weeks before Williams' suicide. I can only find bad...
Trying to Eat Well to Avoid Pain
Previous post on weight & health: Get fit, THEN exercise My progress towards a cramp-free life seems to have slowed. The cramps I suffered during my last 28-day cycle were better than others since I stopped taking the pill last summer, but things still got pretty...