Archive For The “Memoir” Category

Reprint: Why the world needs fat acceptance.

By | July 25, 2011

The following was originally printed in the Summer 2010 “Body Issue” of Geez Magazine, a Canadian publication dealing with progressive spirituality. I just learned last week that it actually won something: 1st place opinion piece in the Canadian Church Press awards. Wild, huh? Anyway, that reminded me that the full text of the piece never […]

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Confession: On not using That Word.

By | June 14, 2011

In the seventh grade, I had a friend named Janine* who uttered the word “retarded” approximately every thirty seconds while she was awake. Kids at that age are terrible people — at least I was terrible and everyone I knew was terrible — and so Janine was really no worse than the rest of us, […]

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Why the pictures matter.

By | February 25, 2011

Longtime readers know that for a couple of years I made frequent photo posts about my outfits, some on this blog, but more regularly on the Fatshionista LiveJournal community where I used to be a maintainer. Lately, my long-dormant outfit-picture urge has been rising again watching all the outfits go by on the Fa(t)shion February […]

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All the young punks: On boots past, present, and metaphorical.

By | December 22, 2010

I bought my first pair of boots when I was fourteen, at a shop called The Wild Pair in the Palm Beach Mall. I’d been reading Sassy magazine for a couple years at this point, and their fondness for a particular English boot manufacturer had always intrigued me. The style was cutting edge, at the […]

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This is a post about my cats.

By | November 19, 2010

I have been quiet this week because I have been sick. Unfortunately, I’ve not been quite sick enough to justify staying home lying in bed and re-watching episodes of Rome (compelling storytelling of the finest quality) and Robin Hood (terrible and yet delicious, the Chicken McNuggets of UK television). Rather, it is the kind of […]

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Sometimes we fight back by merely surviving: A missive for the bullied.

By | October 1, 2010

Middle school was worst for me. I suppose it’s different for everyone; some folks have it worse in high school, but by the time I got there I was better at not picking up other people’s baggage and carrying it around like it was my own. Certainly, high school had its horrifying moments: there was […]

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Because this is what I do.

By | July 28, 2010

So I’ve been alive for thirty-three years now. When I reached plain old thirty, I was told by a great many folks that my thirties would be awesome, because their thirties were awesome, or were in the process of being awesome. I believe them. But my thirties — the three years by which I have […]

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“Spitting in a wishing well”: On music and adolescence and memory.

By | May 18, 2010

I am having a moment. I’m hoping to capture this moment here, while I’m having it, and while this semi-embarrassing flood of memories is untainted by my having overthought and reassimilated them all into something that actually connects to the now. Much of what I write here on this blog could be classified as memoir, […]

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Whipping Girl: A seventh-grade memoir, part two.

By | May 5, 2010

In part one, Danelle was cast out of her clique and I began the sensitive process of carving a more permanent space for myself in same. Following this excerpt are my thoughts on the boys we worshipped, the existence of “frenemies” even before we had a word for them, and our late-1980s hairstyles. I shamelessly […]

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In Memoriam: My Gallbladder

By | May 4, 2010

Yesterday I remarked to my husband: I just realized that this month marks the tenth anniversary of my de-galling, that is, the day I had my gallbladder removed. I mention this experience here frequently. I hesitate to call it traumatic but it was, in a way, insofar as being an experience I went into with […]

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