I Was Wrong About the Pill
The language around birth control these days seems as if it has been designed to deter young women from the medicine that liberated our mothers and grandmothers.
Start of Something Colorful
What if the one thing I will wear til I die clashed with everything else about me?
A Liturgy for Using AI
It feels wrong to type into the chat box, “please add more hopeful language into this article.”
Frozen Dinner
This utilitarian mindset brought me to the recent discovery of frozen dinners…for lunch!
Drummer’s Girlfriend
I was never a Justin Bieber, One Direction, boy-band fanatic, but what I feel watching Micah play must be what the hype is all about.
Go Birds!
One thing I love about repping the Eagles is that I’m in good company.
I DO Think So, Honey!
What would it have felt like to have fallen in love with Bowen Yang’s sense of humor and then seen him join the cast of Saturday Night Live to much acclaim?
Suburgatory
Parking in the furthest spot away in the parking lot is not scratching my walking-everywhere-itch.
Introducing the Brands Sponsoring My Wedding (Unbeknownst to Them)
“Sponsoring” is when you buy a lot of something from one brand, right?
Confessions of Someone With a Unique Name
I relished when a substitute teacher would do roll call and I’d prepare to say, “It’s pronounced ‘Carlisle’.”
Attending My Ex-Boyfriend’s Wedding
They drove off to their honeymoon in the same car he used to drive in college.
How to Boil Egg and Other Things I’ve Recently Googled
I forgot what gremlins were called.
My Taper Candle Collection
A few candles have found their way into candle holders, and even less have ever actually been lit.
Engagement: Just Inconvenient Enough
A wedding is one of the few ceremonies that society deems all right to ask people to fly or drive across multiple states to celebrate. And that is a rare opportunity I don’t want to waste.
Carlisle’s Christmas Classics
Listening to those songs always reminds me of cutting paper snowflakes around the dining room table, putting up tin or clay ornaments on the tree, decorating sugar cookies made from a slightly altered recipe my dad’s been honing for years.
Old Man Johnson
He haunted every campground my family and I ever camped at.
My Old Haunts
All the ghosts I had at the River Arts District White Duck Taco have been drowned.
My Controversial Double Features
Sometimes the pairing is intended to share themes, while sometimes one simply needs to be picked up off the floor after an Aaron Sorkin script leaves you lying there.
Muppets I Would Consider Dating and Why
I like to eat yummy food. The Swedish Chef could make me yummy food.
Where the Kudzu Grows
Kudzu is strong, but the fight for our native plants is not yet over.
Namesake
She loved us a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck, and told us so all the time.
Chicago Stars
I’ve seen plenty of rats, had many awkward bus rides, and barely missed more trains that I can count.
On Decision Fatigue
Streaming services offer more choices than I’m ever going to be able to watch, there are too many excellent restaurants in Chicago to try, and Instagram serves up too many aesthetics for me to commit to in one lifetime.
Hometown Grocery Store
It is so comforting to return to a store I could navigate blindfolded.
Ms. Patete Goes to the Laundromat
I love my in-unit washer and dryer—I have the pictures to prove it.
The Definitive and Fully Objective View on ‘Pride and Prejudice’
I can’t get away with finishing this review without addressing the damp Colin Firth scene.
A Mary Oliver Winter
“Do you have a rolling pin?” I ask her. “No, but I have a wine bottle that’ll do the trick,” she replies.
An Eight Month–Late, Spoiler-Filled Review of ‘Cocaine Bear’
She’s just a bear. A bear that did cocaine. It’s not her fault.
How I Survived the Dunkin’ App Betrayal
“Has it set in a little or is it still pretty tough?”
An Open Letter to My Cat
You’ll never experience true disappointment of losing your Duolingo streak.
