I am talking on the phone with a friend of mine about freelancing and how to make the work of marketing ourselves more efficient. She mentions that a career coach she knows says that the way to get people to buy your brand when you are the brand is to sell your lifestyle as something…

So bee-you-tee-ful! You can look at more like it on Jessica’s website, where she also tells stories about me.  

On days when Jessica thinks I may need some help getting my work done, she deploys Douglas the Turquoise Dragon to keep watch over me.

The first one comes in the fall of Jessica’s junior year, a letter from the admissions office of Kansas State University. I don’t immediately recognize what it is. Once I do, for a moment hope flaps its vain and tinsel wings. Maybe it’s true. Maybe my daughter can go to college, and get a great…

So I had excellent intentions of embarking on a blog challenge that started April 1, and suddenly here it is, practically the middle of June. I don’t normally ignore my blog for that long, and some of you have asked me privately if everything is all right, and I appreciate that. Jessica is fine—in fact,…

At the coffee shop, two young women who’ve recently completed their freshman year of college are comparing notes and talking about what they’ll be doing in the fall. Then they move on to a discussion about applying for study abroad programs that will take place in their junior year, and one of them says, “It’s…