Open Mic

Last year, the locker rooms were under renovation at my gym. Each morning, I headed to a tiny, co-ed space where, for obvious reasons, no one was allowed…

Years ago, I wanted my friend, Meredith, to take me with her on a camping trip to Lake George. I deliberately didn’t tell her that I knew nothing about…

As I look back on my life, I’ll have to admit that I’ve been plagued by less than stellar judgment. I’ve identified three categories: pure bad judgment,…

I write for a living, which means I sit in front of a computer for hours. For years, I balanced on the edge of a rigid wooden chair. Later, I moved to a…

My Facebook feed is full of photos of shipshape garages, orderly closets and neatly stacked undies. Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant, encourages…

As a child, I never wanted to sleep in a room with an open closet door. When I was about five, my parents took us to visit friends in Buffalo, New York. I…

When the Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee yesterday rejected the Equal Rights Amendment, its chair, Del. Margaret Ransone, said: “I don’t need…

A couple of weeks ago, at the end of a cut, my stylist said, “Hmm…your hair looks strange.” A week of high humidity had made me resemble a poodle. Perhaps…

Recently, after four attempts, a TSA agent failed to collect a non-fuzzy image of my fingerprints. No matter how firmly I pressed and no matter how I…

My dad died in March. Even though he needed a pacemaker to regulate his heart and he was a brittle, non-compliant diabetic, his death still shocked…