Wish Ewe Were Here

Helen: Well, Cameron! Hello! Here we are again! I’m so glad we’re back two years after the original 100-days-in-a-dress post, because (a) I didn’t know what to write about for Monday and it was probably going to be something depressing about my dad dying (b) I am so obsessed with everyday, year-round wool clothing now. […]

Redrawing the map

When I was in 8th grade – I think it was 8th grade – we had to do some public speaking. One of our speeches had to be an explanation of something, and I chose to explain the layout of the streets of Washington, D.C. Today, I can’t imagine how I went on for multiple […]

Snapshot: Shiny (Non-Alive) Fish

Sunday morning. Early for a Sunday morning, which is to say not that early. Maybe 8 a.m. A crowd of gulls and terns stood along this sandy Delaware beach. When my friend and I walked past they took off, as expected, and returned to what seemed to be the main activity of the morning: fishing. […]

Snapshot: My Pothos, My Muse

Early in the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, a neighbor was moving out in a hurry. She and her husband had been living separately for some reason – academia-related? – but suddenly she was able to work from anywhere, so she packed up the baby and left. In the process she gave away all […]

Snapshot: A Sun Shower

The last year has been foundation-shaking for me. I went from two parents to zero in less than seven months and I’m trying to figure out exactly how life works now. Soon after the second parent died, my region was plunged into a miserable heat wave that lasted more than a week and made it […]

Snapshot: Look at this violet!

It’s hard to pay attention. It’s hard to be in the moment. It’s very easy to walk around with your face buried in the internet. I’ve started making a game of it – when I’m standing at a busy street corner, how many of the other walkers are staring at their phones? When I’m coming […]

Fruit dispersal, the wrong way

The other day I drove to the grocery store, opened the trunk to get out my shopping bags, and this cherry fell out. At my boyfriend’s house, a couple of beautiful ornamental cherries overhang the parking area. And this little fruit availed itself of my 2012 Prius as a dispersal method. I don’t think this […]

I wrote a eulogy

My father, Jim Fields, died unexpectedly in November at age 81, of a stroke. Last week I wrote a eulogy for his memorial service on Saturday. It was hard. I’m a writer, and goldarn it I wanted it to be the best eulogy ever written. (I’m confident that I did not achieve that, but it’s […]