Time to die

Right now my dad is driving Grandma to the hospital. He asked me what I thought about it and I said it was a good idea. Because if I’d told him otherwise, I would be admitting something neither of us is ready to: that there’s nothing we can do for my grandma. There’s nothing modern […]

2020 in review (kinda)

What to say about 2020? The year is testament to the saying that no matter how bad things get, they can always – always – get worse. The only good news we’ve had all year was Trump’s electoral defeat (the exception which proves the rule, if you ask me). But what few people know – […]

Deadly updates

If I don’t write this now, I probably never will. Because this is writing for you: you need to write. It’s no use saving your ideas for when you’re ready, for when you’re able to write a whole, fully-fledged text, so to speak. Sometimes you need to content yourself with some fragmented pieces of mediocre […]

Death

In my native language, Death is a woman. We imagine that a female body hides behind the Grim Reaper’s thick rope. And let’s face it, that little get-up has always looked like a dress to me. In my mind, Death is a pruny old spinster at a family party. And you’re afraid to glance her […]

On having children – or not.

In English, the gender neutral word for sons and daughters is children. I love that. No matter how old the offspring is, they will always be their parents’ children. There’s a kind of poetic truth in that, I think. Because to my parents, my 38-year-old brother and I will always be children, even as my […]

Quarantine update

“Tell me something good. I need to hear something good.” That was the message I left F some weeks ago. Because I needed – and still do – some good news in my life. I need something to go my way. Soon. I texted him as I was watching my grandma have the tea I’d […]

Where the f*ck is my wisdom?

This is life for you: you’re born, you struggle with the same issues your entire life, you die. Why the gloomy outlook, you ask? I’ve just spent the last hour looking for my students’ grades. I wrote them somewhere and I thought I had added them to the system, but apparently I haven’t. I’ve gone […]

A condescending inspirational message to my young students

Yesterday my grandma turned 93. My father’s mother, who helped raise me and who is responsible for the parts of me I’m most proud of, is now 93 years old. I couldn’t hug her, as she’s off in the countryside with my dad in quarantine. We did Skype, though, and I saw this brittle woman, […]

The cougar myth – let’s talk about sex

I’m a strong and independent modern woman in my late 30s (early 40s in less than a month). I have no problem making the first move or hitting on a guy I’m interested in. I can walk into a bar by myself and order a drink. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed this clumsily […]

A lengthy history of time

I’m just going to say it: Einstein was out of his mind when he said time is relative. There, I said it. Seventy years of scientific advances just went down the drain because I’ve made a groundbreaking discovery: time is not relative, it is inexorable and inescapable. It doesn’t matter that I don’t look 39. […]