Happy Birthday to my Mommy

Today is my Mom’s birthday. Mom and I go way back. As her firstborn, I got to break her in to the whole motherhood thing. This arrangement worked out pretty well for me. (I’m just a little bit spoiled.) For her, I may have raised her blood pressure a bit but overall I think what […]

Ugly

I told my sister that if she wanted to name her daughter Isabella, she’d better be sure she would be pretty. You can’t have an ugly girl named Isabella. Yeah, or else the boys will say things like, “Bella… not!” My co-workers laugh. I smile awkwardly, hoping they cannot sense the lurch in my stomach […]

Thoughts on Bullying, Part 1.

Every Friday morning, NPR airs a short segment called Story Corps. I often catch it on my way to work. Last week, it was a story told by a father whose 14-year-old son committed suicide after being bullied relentlessly. In recent years, there have been a lot of stories of kids killing themselves after being bullied. My heart […]

Stalling

Fear not, dear blog-readers. I have not abandoned you. I’ve been otherwise occupied, and admittedly I am stalling a little. There are things I want to write about that are not really EEC-related and I’m having an internal debate about whether it’s a good idea to expand the scope of this blog to just being […]

Oh, hello!

Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Here is something I have been pondering lately: I tend to be (over)sensitive to the way people smell. I really dislike smelling bad breath and gross body odor. I’m not averse to all body odor, I mean, I spent part of my youth in Vermont, among pot-smoking, dreadlocked, […]

Wherein I Air More of My Flaws

I’d really like to be one of those people who sends a Christmas card to everyone I’ve ever known. I love sending handwritten notes to people and I love making cards. This year was pretty much an epic fail as far as that goes, thanks to chronic procrastination, an inability to say “no” to anything, […]

Keeping Things In Perspective

The first time I saw the night sky in it’s full glory, I could hardly believe my eyes. Stars sparkled in all colors. The milky way rippled across the dark like a shimmering ribbon. Shooting stars fizzled above the horizon. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that there were more stars than I could ever have […]

Swimming with Suzanne

Water. How I have always loved water. Whether it be in a bath tub or a swimming pool, I want to be in it. Swimming allowed me to be weightless and graceful, while on land I was clumsy and awkward. Being in the pool was like being in another world – one where I never […]

Modified Radical Mastoidectomy, Round 2

Yesterday I had my mastoid surgery. There was a brief moment in which it seemed the surgery might not happen. My dad was supposed to pick me up at 8am but the car (which was actually MY car that he was borrowing) broke down as he was on his way to get me!! Of course […]

Deaf As A Post – Part 2

Throughout my late teens and most of my 20’s, I lived in ignorant bliss when it came to my ears. My “bad” ear was stable enough that it didn’t bother me. Once in a while I would have nagging thoughts about the cholesteatoma coming back, so I would make an appointment with my ENT to […]