In fourteen days, I will be forty. Here are forty little nuggets of knowledge I’ve picked up over the past four decades. Of course these are mine and are not intended for everyone . . . which leads to the first item on my list: Not everyone will like you, and that’s ok that’s GOOD! I don’t WANT everyone to like me because that would mean I was being who they want to see and not being myself. Authenticity is more rewarding than adulation. Revulsion is the undercurrent of both derision and pity.… Read more @40 ~ things I’ve learned and am still learning →
Dogs are better/more versatile than vacuum cleaners because there’s no need to switch to the hose attachment to get the dog to suck dead spiders off the basement floor. Dogs… Read more Some truths about dogs and floor care: →
Dear Midnight, (AKA: Mr. Bohanan, Pupperton P. Jones, and Flufferton J. Goldendoodle) You’re four and half months old and it will be difficult for you to pay attention to this… Read more An Open Letter to Our Puppy →
I’m not remotely Catholic (and don’t plan to be, I am going to say nice things, but I AM NOT a candidate for conversion, thanks, but no thanks). I lived… Read more My Post Easter Sacrilegious Pontification →
I imagine you might see a post from me on your feed and think, “No! Amanda is posting another rolling in the deep missive about the reality that we’re all going to die and life is beautifully painful.” Yeah, I know, I’m the girl who thinks really deep thoughts. But alas, no! I’ve decided I need to give you poor beleaguered friends some fun, and since I’ve not one peeve I want to rant about in an open letter right now, I shall share our parental mission: Operation F-You Pickachu.… Read more Operation F’You Pikachu →
I just now found myself toggling between two web browser tabs, one marking a page about poet Marie Howe the other about singer C.W. McCall. I live in such a netherworld of obscure thoughts that I suspect most typical people won’t know who either of those people are. Marie Howe is a successful poet who teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and writes beautiful poetry I would like to buy. Her work is clean and easily understood but deep and meaningful. She’s the type of poet I aspire to be, if… Read more An Irony, A Memory, An Aspiration →
I have been spending just about all of my free time lately getting ready for the book launch in April. Press releases, pitches, edits, post cards, postage . . . so much and so many things. Check out my new and improved web page by poking around after you read the blog. Anyway, it’s been a busy series of evenings, and I’m not quite done with my list. Often, I am asked how I do so much, but it’s really not about what I do, it’s about what I don’t… Read more Amanda’s Mostly Don’ts →