Sunrise, Sunset… (Dispatch from Utopia)
I’ve been quiet the past few weeks because our family was up to our necks in the mucky ending of the first semester and I had to go into Family Project Manager overdrive mode. We all got through it, to …
Author: Cari
Refilling the well with a nice, lighthearted murder
Happy New Year! I hope the final stretch of 2022 was good to you. I’m emerging from a mostly delicious holiday cocoon, somewhat irritated that it’s time to get back to waking up to alarms and doing work and being …
Refilling the well with a nice, lighthearted murder Read more »
The Books I Loved Most in 2022
We’re well into the cold and gray and dark here in Portland, and with 2022 coming to a close with alarming swiftness (seriously, what the hell is happening with this passage of time shit? SLOW DOWN!), it feels like a …
A Secret (okay, not so secret) Well in Toledo
In my last letter to you, I talked about catching covid on the way to Spain this summer, and I briefly mentioned dragging my covid-negative-but-still-sickly ass around Toledo in the name of novel research. The book is mostly set in …
Okay, so a pandemic and an anxiety disorder walk into a bar…
I’m among friends here, right? So can I just say that… Holy hell, the threat of covid does not play well with my anxiety disorder. Pandemic plus a natural tendency toward panic is a terrible combination. Are you feeling it, …
Okay, so a pandemic and an anxiety disorder walk into a bar… Read more »
Same Cari, New Box
So…I did it. I tucked you all into a box and carried it over from Tiny Letter to Substack. I’d been going back and forth on the decision for months now. I liked the coziness of Tiny Letter, and I …
Recommendation: Burn Your Journals
I started a fire because I was sick of myself. I was discouraged and exhausted, wallowing in a humiliation that was entirely self-imposed and perhaps even imaginary. I won’t get into the details here, because the problem was that I …
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
Me and my dad, Spring 1974, NYC Me and my mom, Spring 1974, NYC I sometimes joke that after I die (many, many years from now) my children will say, with great tenderness, “Remember how old songs on the radio …
The old man at the vet's office
Shortly before the pandemic, when we still blithely breathed near strangers in small indoor spaces, I took the cat to the vet for his annual exam. (I say this so that you don’t worry about the cat, who is fine.) …
Hey there
At some point in the past, you very kindly signed up to hear from me once in a while. It’s been quite some time since I last sent one of these out. Some difficult professional things happened, some difficult life …