In one month, we’ll meet their daughter. For now, we navigate runny duck yolks. “It’s not worth it,” her partner says. “You’re in the final stretch.” Instead we order cheese…
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Once upon a time, I was a time traveler. The voyage started on a cross-country flight to Baltimore, followed by a fitful sleep in my teenage bedroom. The next night,…
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Our first apartment in San Francisco was the size of the living room we had on the East Coast, in the so-new-it-smelled-and-sparkled apartment weʼd left behind. “Good riddance,” I thought,…
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The whole world felt like a crisper drawer. It smelled like the heady soap rush of an open door at a laundromat, the first bloom of jasmine. Trees crowded with…
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I have a bad habit that I’m not going to fix. When I drop popcorn on my lap, I eat it, as though my folded knees are a continuation of…
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2017 was the year of “something happened.” From headlines to text messages, the news was violently surreal. Phone calls were big or they were a minute long. Houses lost the…
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Over the holidays I flew to Maryland to empty my childhood home. Ever since my parents’ marriage ended, I was haunted by that house. A testament to its power, the…
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“A face only a mother could love” is the first glimpse of a hotel breakfast buffet’s craggy features: margarine and stale cereal, formica table tops with coffee rings. Consider me…
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1. Egg Salad: You’re going to carry that sandwich a long time. When we are Jewish, someone is dead or we’re eating. And, really, when someone is dead, it’s…