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I drive to BigCity, NC to see Cissy, my Chinese medicine herbologist. It has been two months since my last visit and drinking two cups a day of her expert tea prescription. I have good news to [...]

I curse the first half-mile of mountain trails, sweat forming around my hairline, the taste of salt familiar on my lips. This is not a margarita, I think as I embark on my first outdoor run of [...]

I go to the Easter party at the craft school. What this means is that it’ s an excuse for everyone to dress up in exaggerated pastels, wear bunny ears (which are inherently suggestive), and dance [...]

Cedar Mae’s parents drop her off at the craft school just as I am done with my closing shift. She was busy all fall with gymnastics, broke her ankle this winter, then traveled for spring break. [...]

I awake at daybreak to the soft, squirting sound of a Carolina Wren shitting on my dresser. Wait, a Carolina Wren shitting on my dresser? I chase the poor bird around the house, half-asleep and [...]

I go on a date with Marshall from the meditation center. I said yes after he boldly asked me three times, twice in front of other people after sitting. Each time involved a series of “Would you [...]

I couldn’t have been in a more compromising position. Closing shop at the coffeehouse, I was bent over at the waist with my ass up in the air, trying to peer under a table and sweep up the dirt. [...]

I read Judy Blunt and it feels like eating chocolate. How does she do this so well? What are her tricks? Those of us who are obsessed with words understand that it’s possible to stumble upon an [...]

Yesterday I finished Owning it All, a collection of essays by William Kittredge. Now I imagine myself sitting in the dining hall having dinner with him at the first residency for my Master’s, [...]

Tammy, my sangha grandmother, gives it to me straight: “You’re human. You have hormones. Just be thankful your body is working the way it should be. Really, it’s doin’ it’s job. Just let it go.” [...]