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 …
Author: Cari
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 …
After listening to Nick Cave's Skeleton Tree for the first time…
(Go here for some background on Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree) What do you do with a stranger’s grief? What do you do with a stranger’s grief when that stranger doesn’t feel like a stranger at all? When they have not just …
After listening to Nick Cave's Skeleton Tree for the first time… Read more »
How it was
Tomorrow, July 25th, is my husband’s birthday, and the third anniversary of my accepting Tin House’s offer to publish The Revolution of Every Day, and the seventh anniversary of my first of three miscarriages. Three days after that first miscarriage …
Mix Tape
Hey all. It’s been a while, huh? A few days ago, I hauled a dusty cardboard box up out of the basement. It had been down there since we moved to Portland in 2007, full of cassette tapes that I …
Little Suzie Homemaker
There was a period of time—a solid three-year stretch—when I baked all of the bread my family ate, made all of our yogurt, grew most of our vegetables, picked 30+ pounds of three types of berry every summer and canned …
As Mitchell S. Jackson likes to say, lit life is life
On Monday evening, my husband and I got all dressed up and went to the Gerding Theater here in Portland for the Oregon Book Awards. At the beginning of January I’d been named one of five finalists for the Ken …
As Mitchell S. Jackson likes to say, lit life is life Read more »