Eh, I could and I’ve thought about it, but decided against it. Her name with a hyphenated last name just doesn’t sound great at all, her full name would be one hell of a long name, and her full name was carefully chosen amid a gauntlet of weird family quirks, drama, and opinions. 

Well that’s curious, because wasps never bothered me as a kid but now they have an evil love affair with me. I thought that it was because I started wearing brighter colors, but maybe it’s the colors and my body smell.

That isn’t uncommon for that generation. There was a whole lot of silence from WW2 vets and survivors, only a select few were open about it. I imagine that PTSD and stigma played a huge role for many. My husband’s grandpa had an incredible story of being captured in Korea, but he never spoke about it either, up until…

I thought so. I figured it was either my blood is no longer tasty or my sweat is no longer attractive to them (since the meds have changed the way I sweat). But in any case, it’s a win-win: I feel better AND no mosquitoes!

I knew it!

My grandpa survived the holocaust in eastern Europe through a convoluted, insane story. He never, ever spoke with me about it, but I pieced it together from letters and historical context after he died. But the only ones who survived were a sister and him, and they had an apparently nasty falling out somewhere in the…

Yeah, it’s like I know that my genetics wont end just because the name is gone, but my grandpa went through so much and it feels wrong to me that his name will just go away. So I’m writing about him as much as I can, in hopes that he, his family, and his story wont be forgotten to time.

I know, right? Everything else is cool for me. The coyotes leave us the hell alone. The woodchuck under our house just makes some noise. The baby bunnies just made my cats crazy when they spotted them by a window. A deer once freaked me out because it was looking straight into my bedroom window while I was undressing.…

We live right on the edge of a suburban city and country land, with a forest right behind our subdivision. At least once a year, a huge group of turkeys will wander into our neighborhood and stroll around like they own the place. In the Turkey Incident, about a dozen of them just loitered between my house and my…

I used to be a mosquito magnet, but I guess I’m too old for them now. I dunno, the only thing I can come up with is my medication that I started right around that time.

Oh man, that is hell. Once, my husband came home and he didn’t say a word to me as he stepped into the house, instantly stripped off his scrubs, threw them in the washer, and bee lined for the shower. Turned out that one of the patients who had been admitted on his floor was crawling with bedbugs and the ER had…

Oh gods, I thought I was lucky enough that it missed my hair. I’m going to take an extra moment of thankfulness now.

I’ve been lucky that mosquitos suddenly find me unpalatable. I can’t explain it, but for two/three years, I’ve rarely been bitten. But since the mosquitoes stopped biting me, birds and squirrels have been trying to assassinate me.

Unless I get some sweet cash out of this, the birds can keep their good fortune. Birds are the only thing in nature that actively appear to be trying to kill me on a yearly basis.

It’s acceptable if you enjoy long, unpronounceable names with silent letters. 

I thought of hyphenating when I got married, but the result is an absolute mouthful that has no appeasing sound to it at all. Plus, 90% of the reason I changed is because I didn’t (and still don’t) want to be associated with my parents. But now I feel slightly regretty because I adored my grandpa and I’ve come to…

I can’t answer your question, but I’ve had a sudden desire to change my name back to my maiden name because I’ve realized that my brother and I are the last of the line for our surname. It’s somewhat unexplainable because my kidlet will still have my husband’s surname, so it’s the end of the line whether I change it…

While I am happy that this bear has been rescued from its predicament, I am currently unhappy with nature. I stepped outside on my porch for just a moment and suddenly felt something whap my shoulder. I was outside for less then a minute and a damn bird pooped on me. And attempting to take my shirt off without getting…

Dotcom, you see, is suddenly claiming that he has known all along that Seth Rich was the source of the leaked DNC emails that Wikileaks published.

I woke up to check the school bus stop weather and the news website had it plastered all over the front page. Soundgarden was a part of my teen soundtrack and the news of his death hit me like a rock, to the point that I was explaining 90s music to my kindergartner over breakfast while dragging out my old CDs. I also…