January 2011
3 posts
“Sure I was scared of heights and roller coasters and fish. But I was also...”
– Kimberly Hula, “Have you hugged an adventurer today?” on 52Adventures
Full Circle
Did it again. This time holding the hand of the one I love.
Perfect end. Perfect beginning.
2 tags
What is Yes?
2010 is done, and so is this, my Year of Yes.
And I’m asking myself, what does it take to conquer fear? What is strength?
Is it to free oneself from other’s expectations? Your own? Is it to push yourself? Or let yourself go? Is it to run? Or stay? Is it to embrace noise, motion, chaos? Or silence, stillness and peace?
After all that I’ve been through this past year, I still...
December 2010
1 post
“When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be...”
– Don Miguel Ruiz
October 2010
1 post
So there's this thing...
I’m having surgery on November 3rd.
Nothing big. In and out. Short recovery. And if all goes well, it will buy my girl parts three more relatively pain-free years.
The story: I’ve been having cyclical pelvic pain and spotting since the summer. The level and length of pain has increased since then. I’ve missed some work. I’ve had to explain to friends, family and...
September 2010
1 post
4 tags
And just like that, a 10-ton elephant has been...
Oh, guys. My funeral. It was going to be awesome. Circus performers! Live music! A parade, even! But you’re just going to have to wait a little longer.
Test results: Precancerous changes are characterized as “mild.” At this time, my risk for developing cervical cancer is low. Check again in 6 months. It is likely that this will, in my doctor’s words, “clear out on...
August 2010
3 posts
3 tags
I have a favor to ask.
I need your white light. I need your healing thoughts. I need your Atheist prayers.
Last month, I had my annual pelvic exam and my pap smear results came back abnormal. My doctor called them precancerous changes to the cells.
After he said this, all I heard was a buzzing sound. I’m not going to tell you where my head went, because if you’ve gotten this kind of news, or anything...
1 tag
Yes, Love. Yes.
I could scream. I could snarl and spit. I could break things. I could be cruel.
But I refuse to be ruled by anger and bitterness.
I could cry. I could break down. I could crawl into my pain and never come out again.
But to give up on life would hurt me even more.
I could say that I’m devastated.
But I’ve survived worse.
I could say I’ll never love again.
But of course I...
3 tags
With the radio on.
I did not dare to look behind me. Because I knew I would see the people in the control room. And that might have made my heart beat harder and faster than it already was. I thought for sure they could hear it over the giant green mic that hung above me. I thought they would have to come in and tell me to calm down.
But they didn’t. I listened to the segment break through the headphones,...
July 2010
1 post
1 tag
Live! From my bed! At dawn! What the hell am I...
I passed out early last night so I’m up before the sun. My phone was a mess of notifications. I missed some things. I don’t like missing things. This is why I was an insomniac as a child, and that’s why I’m an insomniac now. Though now I’m a lot more Zen about missing things. Things are missed, and it’s ok. The world won’t end. Oh, Dear Reader....
June 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Today.
Today, I was a roommate, a patient, a girlfriend, a designer, a friend, a photographer, a mom, an ex-wife, a fan.
Today, I was nauseous. I was tired. I was lazy. I was surprised. I was uncomfortable. I felt pain. I laughed. I kicked my ass and stretched my limbs. I breathed into my belly. I took the long way home. I rolled down the windows. I turned the music up very loud.
Today, I remembered...
6 tags
Yes in Technicolor.
This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. And it makes me very, very happy.
May 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Yes, it was...down there.
1 tag
I don't ever want to give up being this
flawed excited adventurous shy outgoing spirited sarcastic stubborn game confused open melancholy impatient scared awed odd innocent wise right wrong easy to smile easy to cry easy to laugh easy an artist a fool a friend a mother a sister a hugger a liar a lover giving willing grateful humble happy
April 2010
5 posts
4 tags
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t...”
– Gilda Radner (via Ivan)
1 tag
When you meet Amanda Palmer...
Hug her. Thank her. Tell her how her music has gotten you through so much.
And then make her scream into a camera.
I won entrance, via Twitter, into a super-secret surprise rehearsal for Ms. Palmer’s new music project, EvelynEvelyn, which is premiering in Cambridge next Monday night. Yet another absurd surprise this week that just makes me marvel at how my life has become so abundant...
I'm not going to call the past 24 hours a...
That would be too easy. Nor will I run down a list of everything that is going/has gone wrong. Instead I’ll focus on a single moment from today. A moment that just contained everything beautiful, sad and absurd.
It was my grandmother’s lipstick. A pearly pink shade that matched her carefully-chosen outfit. It was incongruous with the scene that was playing out before me: her, sitting...
March 2010
1 post
3 tags
Saying Yes to the Dresses (and Why Mortified Is So...
I am in the fitting room of H&M.
I have approximately 10 dresses to try on.
Forget jumping out of planes. Because, this? This is really freakin’ scary.
But I’ve committed to the idea of wearing a dress for my reading at Mortified, and my friend Jess is waiting on the other side of the fitting room door to provide critique and commentary. She is also there to make sure that I...
February 2010
8 posts
2 tags
"and then your job is not to run after them."
(Note: Updated and edited for clarity on Saturday afternoon.)
Morning commute. I was in a good mood. I had a new hat and really, nothing can suck when you’re rocking a new hat (set at an angle you hope comes off as “jaunty” and not just “douche-y”). The Dresden Dolls “Mrs. O” came on the iPod. It got me thinking about the time in the late 90’s when...
It's, like, a movement or something. →
It can't always be pink.
CRACK!
My right temple connected with the glass doorknob. Hard. I cursed the cat, who I was just trying to wrangle back into my bedroom before I dashed out to see MC Frontalot at Harper’s Ferry. I straightened up and my eyes filled with tears. At first it was because of the startling pain, but then I leaned back against the fridge, slid down to the floor and started sobbing. I stayed there...
Now with 73% more cat hair!
It was the little mew from below that got me. I went into the Animal Rescue League shelter on Thursday to see another cat, but this little guy caught my eye. He was such a loverboy, I knew he was coming home with me.
From his Petfinder profile:
Hello friends! My name is Voltron! I found my way to the ARL when someone found me in a box in South Boston. Getting stuck in a box wasn’t very...
2 tags
“Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover,...”
– May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
1 tag
“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”
– Horace Walpole (via damselesque)
2 tags
The Yes Report: January
I kicked off this Year of Yes with a Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day. It was incredible. Amazing. I do not exaggerate when I say that it was a major turning point for me emotionally. I still don’t know how I can top that moment.
I’ve come close, though. Two weeks later, I took part in the No Pants Subway Ride.
Then, there was the roadtrip to New York City and...
January 2010
17 posts
We're Betting on Yes!
I almost said no. It was 6:30 and I was already in my pajamas.* I had never been to a casino, but I knew that it has never been my idea of a good time. I just didn’t get it. It’s what other people do. And I don’t have money to lose.
Grace sweetened the deal by offering a hundred bucks to play with.
The Old Jenny voice said, “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that.”
But...
3 tags
Excuse me while I SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE. →
Those who know me well understand that I’m a type geek. It makes sense that my first tattoo is designed from type. One of my favorite things to do as a designer is to hunt down the perfect font for a project. And of course, I begin my hunt at MyFonts. So when it came to designing my tattoo, that was my first stop. The site is so easy to use, I found what I was looking for almost...
2 tags
“For the faithful, the patient, the hermetically pure, all the important things...”
– J.D. Salinger
How to feel a thousand times better about...
Acquire the following:
Feather boa
Bubbles
Sparkly tiara (or a wig) (or a stupid hat)
Silly glasses (can be substituted with a clown nose)
Lipstick (optional)
Sprinkle with vodka. Season liberally with loud music. Mix well.
And voilà.
One simply can’t feel crappy when wearing the above items.
Fact is, I’ve had a rough couple of days. Not sleeping well. Not eating well. Back...
2 tags
1 tag
It's a very nice reminder.
Because I’m not content to merely blog about an idea. No, I must commit it to my flesh with ink and a million little pinpricks.
That’s my cousin, Tommy, doing the honors.
4 tags
If I weren't being cremated, I'd want to be buried... →
Airstream Trailer Fantasy Coffin from Ghana by Nii Anum
6 tags
New York Yes
I may have already unpacked my clothes from this weekend’s trip, but I’m still unpacking and sorting through my memories. To run through it all chronologically would be folly (and maybe a little boring), so I’ll skip right to the point of it all:
Let go of the artifact. Just make. Just do. And keep doing it. For yourself. And not for some faceless, unpredictable audience or an...
4 tags
THIS IS MY REALITY RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME.
(via Eric Proulx @eproulx)
3 tags
Say Yes To Pantslessness!
Today I took part in the No Pants Subway Ride, organized by the Boston Society of Spontaneity.
The crowd gathered at the Alewife T station, as instructed. Organizers were identified by umbrellas. While waiting for our group assignments, I struck up a conversation with two lovely gals from Newton named Jess and MJ.
After signing in, we were directed to our group leader, Virginia, who had...
Suggest-A-Yes
What would you like me to say “YES!” to?
Kindly send submissions to suggest.a.yes@gmail.com
Please note: I will not take part in any activity that would basically involve me hurtling through the air from a great height (see: acrophobia) so you skydiving enthusiasts can just sit on your hands. Nor will I participate in anything that requires a breathing apparatus or being in small,...
“MAKING ART IS DIFFICULT. We leave drawings unfinished and stories unwritten. We...”
– David Bayles & Ted Orland - Art & Fear: Observations on the perils (and rewards) of ARTMAKING. (via eminentdisaster)
WatchI want to think like this man.
“The thing that’s hardest to say is often the thing that most needs to be said.”
– (via vegasbab)
“From a distance it might look straight, but when you get close up, you can...”
– Margaret Kilgallen (October 28, 1967 – June 26, 2001)
5 tags
First yes.
So there I was at Phinney’s Harbor on a snowy beach with a crowd of locals for the 13th Annual Monument Beach Polar Bear Plunge. According to the guy on the bullhorn, the air temp was 34° and the water temp was 30°.
I made sure to take a deep breath and just absorb the moment. I let go of the fact that my Flip camera batteries had just died and I was trusting my sister to work an...
December 2009
1 post
YES.
2009 was The Year of Doing Things That Scare Me, and I certainly did plenty of scary things. I spent the year running through an evolving and unordered list of challenges that helped me confront and conquer a lot of fear that I’ve held on to for much too long.
I started a daily photo project. I didn’t finish it, but that’s ok because I got what I needed out of the exercise.
I...