My favorite sleep paralysis experience happened while I was binge-watching Dexter. My boyfriend woke me up because I was struggling and drenched in sweat (although I felt frozen and trapped in my body). He asked me what was wrong and I answered, “I don’t know where to hide the bodies.” To his eternal credit, his…

I was your little girl, at around the same age—my mom recently told me she was super creeped out by me, and didn’t know what to do. I distinctly remember the day she told me we had never been to Georgia. I was crushed. Most of my memories centered around the family home in Georgia, and I often “recognized” people we…

I have a theory that everyone has a couple of experiences that struggle to logically explain. Some people attribute these things to supernatural/paranormal phenomena; others keep trying to logic it out. Myself, I go between the two. Most of the time, I’m incredibly logical. But the more I push for a normal explanation…

I experience sleep paralysis often enough to be scared of it, in itself. I don’t need to think about what my brain will tell me is happening during that time; I know that I will be in terrible peril and unable to move or scream, and it will feel like time is standing still. There have been times I have tried to scream…

It’s the same phenomena as religious experiences like speaking in tongues. I grew up in an Evangelical/Pentecostal church in which it was completely normal for someone to “speak in tongues” (basically, they would utter a series of nonsense sounds that were believed to be inspired by God), and someone else would…

That’s a fantastic idea. Thanks!

Are you serious? I would be willing to pay you (or at least send you a gift card or something). It’s probably easier to list what I have:

Every time I reread The Blind Assassin, I find something new that I missed. It’s brilliant and beautiful and unforgettable. It’s on my top 3 list.

I know! On one hand, I’m glad she is getting the recognition she deserves and loving all of the adaptation talk. On the other hand, I can no longer add to my Atwood library at used bookstores due to the high demand, and this makes me sad.

I was listening to a podcast miniseries on consent all day on Monday... Afterwards, I was so agitated and upset that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I realized I have been playing a sick version of triggered-chicken for the last few weeks. I devour every article on sexual harassment and assault and keep…

My sister and her husband got custody of his kids when his then-7-year-old daughter disclosed to my sister that her cousin was molesting her. Her bio mom knew and didn’t tell anyone because her sister was providing free daycare, and she didn’t want to lose that. It still took months and a series of other issues (black…

I politely declined a coffee date with a supervisor on another team in my office. He was perfectly nice, a little overly friendly but nothing inappropriate, and handled the rejection well (by ‘well’, I mean that he accepted it and now seems to be avoiding me. Childish, but better than the alternatives.) Today, a…

When I was a kid, I dreamed an entire day. I got up, had waffles for breakfast, got a 78% on a pop quiz, was the last person on my team in dodgeball, read 102 pages in my book...super detailed, and ended with me going to sleep. And being awakened almost immediately by Mom yelling that waffles were ready. The entire…

I recently interviewed for a promotion within my company and one of the questions was how I would handle going from a peer to a supervisor of my coworkers...I had to stop myself from saying “I deliberately try to not be friends with them, so it shouldn’t be an issue” and say something that sounded professional and not…

People forget that breakups take time, and by the time you finally call it quits, there’s a good chance that at least one person has already checked out. By the time I ended my marriage, I was ready to move on and started dating immediately...after years of working on myself and my marriage and realizing I was with…

Exactly!

At this point, Courtney Love is firmly in the same camp as Hillary Clinton: with as much scrutiny as they have been under for decades, either they didn’t kill anyone or are the most successful murderers ever. I’m going with the former.

A perfectly nice guy I met on Tinder and went out with a couple of times before giving the “we should be friends” speech quickly reached borderline stalker status by continuing to text me constantly and “just happening” to be at the same places I was and waiting by the door to catch me leaving. When I said I was sick…

I got to see Jackie when she opened for Maria Bamford last spring, and she was fantastic! It was my first introduction to her, and I was so impressed. Also, some drunk guy managed to get onstage during Maria’s set and she handled it so well—my respect for her somehow got even higher, which I didn’t know was possible.

Jen Kirkman’s “I’m Gonna Die Alone and I Feel Fine” is one of my all-time favorite routines. Also, anything by Aziz Ansari, Russell Brand, or Maria Bamford.