Happy Birthday, Jessica!
For my beautiful daughter —
Thank you for teaching me the meaning of joy.
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A Halloween Story
It is the time of year when spiders crawl all over my bookshelves. Black spiders, purple ones, pink ones, some with googly eyes, and some with “on” switches that make them glow. “On Halloween, I will dress up like a vampire to hand out candy,” Jessica says, adjusting a madly glittering spider so that it’s…
A circle of friends
The other night, I was at what can only be described as a suburban cocktail party. I had a good time, but I was reminded that I should, perhaps, wear a sign: “Warning: Jennifer’s sense of humor is not to be taken seriously.” I horrified seven people, which, in a gathering of about twenty is…
Travels with Jessica
Jessica is in many ways an amazing child, but her brain does not have an executive function, or if it does, it’s like one of my former bosses, out on a three-martini lunch most days. She cannot intuit or deduct but she can memorize and extrapolate. Which means that I have to do all the…
On things you’d think I would know by now
Jessica is opening her Christmas presents. Some of them are things she picked out for herself that I’ve wrapped and put under the tree. She pulls the paper back from a book and asks, perplexed, “Am I supposed to be surprised by this?” She can’t remember what she has picked out and what she hasn’t….
On Halloween decorations
This is a Halloween essay from 2011. This weekend, at Jessica’s behest, we decorated the house for Halloween. Now, at your house, Halloween may be all black and orange and eerie music, but at our house, it is quite pink and sparkly. The witch’s broom glitters, and the pumpkin has a cheerful smile, and…
On how we are free
Years ago, Jessica had a big plastic castle that she got for Christmas, and a number of princess figures that fit inside. One day she came to me and she said, “I let all of the princesses out of the castle and now they are free!” She was beyond excited; she was thrilled. And…
