My Dad wanted to talk to me privately. It was a Fall Sunday evening in 1964. I was nine years old. This was really important or I was in big trouble. Dad only talked to me alone when he was telling me a bedtime story, driving me to his office on a Saturday morning, or explaining a math problem. We walked into the living room from the kitchen, where Mom cleaned up after dinner. We walked past the kidney-shaped marble […]
It was late summer of 2012. I was 24, and it was the first time I had a pap smear come back abnormal. The nurse practitioner who called to break the news and schedule a follow up procedure told me that these things are pretty common and that at one time or another, just about every woman at some point in her life has an abnormal pap, and it’s usually nothing to fret about. Regardless of what’s normal, I don’t […]
I dunno about you folks but I don’t love giving blowjobs. The pushing, the pulling, the choking the gagging … all of that is annoying, but I have a darker reason. This reason is what I have come to call The Blowjob Incident. One summer day in June 2004 I boarded a Southwest flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. There were very few seats left when I got on. I plopped down next to a guy. He was doing the […]
During the first week of December, in 2007, I told my three teenage sons that in three weeks I would be having surgery. I didn’t say what for. Not one of them asked any questions. Not one. You would think they would be a teensy bit curious. I think I know why they didn’t ask. The year before I had been diagnosed with breast cancer–caught early, stage one–followed by a lumpectomy and a week of internal radiation. My sons, Weldon, […]
