Nature, Nurture, Nerd

I am very accustomed to drawing a lot of attention on my daily walk, because I am accompanied by a living embodiment of a gigantic cartoon dog whose facial expression is exactly this for the duration: Every day people pass me and actually … [Continue reading]

Long and Winding Road

I was walking with a friend downtown toward my favourite bookstore when I recognized a woman passing us. Isn't it funny that when you see a person out of context, it can take a moment to place them? Usually for me it's someone I see from the dog park … [Continue reading]

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Zucapocalypse Edition

August was a bit of a wild ride for me: I took an epic road trip to a family reunion, my husband and older son were gone for three weeks, the garden went completely rogue, my pretend sister came for a visit, I spent lots of one-on-one time with my … [Continue reading]

Waisting Away

Over a year ago, I noticed something that I had literally never noticed before, and that was that every single woman over a certain age that I knew, or even encountered in a casual way, sported a thickened waist and a soft tummy. I first noticed it … [Continue reading]

Fun Fun Fun

I spent a lot of time by myself over the past couple of weeks, and it turns out that when this happens I end up pondering concepts that should be, in theory, fairly simple, but by the time I'm finished mulling things over, words themselves have lost … [Continue reading]

Don’t It Make My Pink Jobs Blue

In grad school I had a copy of the Feminist Manifesto, along with a poster of a fish riding a bicycle, taped to the walls of my office, and I feel that says everything you need to know. I am firmly a Rosie the Riveter woman at heart, and yet in the … [Continue reading]

Five (Plus Two) (So, Seven) For Friday: The I’m Back, and With Books Edition

I'm back from a solo trip to a family reunion that happened over the long weekend. First and foremost, it was great. There's something so special about being around people who you have known your whole life. I loved seeing all my cousins, I loved … [Continue reading]