Suddenly, she opened her eyes. And everything… stopped. Her eyes rolled around a little bit at first, but she eventually found me. And I looked back, deep into her small, beautiful eyes. She looked at me but could only see a stranger. I looked at her and could see everything she is and would become. I had known what it was to love. But I didn’t know what it was to truly, irrevocably, and unconditionally love another person, especially a kid. And I had no idea that it was possible to truly, irrevocably, and unconditionally love a kid who wasn’t even yours.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid I wanted to be a marine biologist. After growing up in Ocean City, Maryland, the sea was so mysterious and beautiful. I’d hop out of bed at 6 a.m. to play on the sand bar at low tide and loved studying the waves, horseshoe crabs, and occasional jellyfish. And then fast forward one “Jaws” movie and one Bethany Hamilton shark attack memoir later, and my oceanic romance had faded. It all came to an official end when I was 13 years old, wading in the surf with my family in Ocean City.
Read More“That was beautiful. Wasn’t it beautiful everybody?” the DJ said with great enthusiasm after the best man's speech. Yes, I thought. But let’s get this over with. I got raspberry cake to eat. “And now, up next. Let’s hear from the maid of honor, the only sister of the bride… Liz!” Oh crap… I thought, choking on the champaign. I knew I forgot something. The DJ was closing in on me, and I began to sweat. My head snapped over to the right, where Catherine was already staring back at me, her big brown eyes still glassy from the previous speeches. My cheeks became hot.
Read MoreA perm is a funny thing. Its soft, shapely curls have the ability to accentuate only your greatest of features. But if left under the dryer too long, it can resurrect awkward, uneasy sentiments of your adolescence when you could neither control nor understand your outward appearance. A perm is the best of times, and it is the worst of times. For me, it is also a memory. Of a woman, specifically, named Kathy. She lived 58 wonderful years before cancer got the upper hand. But that third chair from the door, in that familiar salon, will always be Kathy’s.
Read MoreOne night I sat across the table from a Harry Styles look-a-like, smiling at how his hair gel glistened under our table lamp. As he picked at the bowl of warm pita bread, my eyes were busy outlining his pectoral muscles underneath his button down. Eventually, when Harry Styles failed to call me back after his completely rejected but oddly flattering booty call, I cried. I cried not for his inflated sense of entitlement. I cried because I couldn’t decide which title to choose for my book.
Read MoreYou know that one scene in "Friends" where Rachel finally learns to do her own laundry at the public mat and, upon asserting her place in New York City, shares her first impromptu kiss with Ross? Well, just call me Rachel Green.Though there was no man for me to plant a big wet one on, willingly anyway, I did finally set my place at the folding table of the city. I took my dirty clothes to the local mat.
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