my city, my rules

Category: Past

  • Throw a punch (II) 🎧

    I text Sam: “Boxing class = done.” She replies with a prompt, “WOO!!!” Then, “How was it?”—followed by an image of a tarot card pulled for a Libra (my sun sign): The Four of Wands. Beneath it: “There’s something worth celebrating right now, whether you realize it or not. So bring everyone together in the…

  • Throw a punch (I)

    I shall be fighting a heavy bag in precisely one hour. It only took me nine days to follow through. It will be the first time wrapping my hands and putting on boxing gloves. Not the first time throwing a punch. And definitely not the first time visualizing how good I imagine it feels wearing…

  • oh, woe is me 🎵

    Can I be vulnerable for a sec? Oh, I’m already vulnerable? Thank you for reading me, whoever you are. Even if you just skim a paragraph, or roll your eyes at a sentence. Thank you for any moment where you exhale and think, “That was good,” or “That was funny,” or if there was even…

  • I did it for the sloth 🎧

    Why add audios? I could say it’s for accessibility purposes, but I read a comment in a blogging community that basically said they already have software for screen reading. I suppose I just like the act of reading my words. Making them feel less serious or heavy. I think back on my third grade self.…

  • Drafts

    These are some drafts that I rarely revisit or tweak. They all felt complete. 📝 ONE Six years ago, me and three of my girlfriends did yoga on my deck. We each set up our phones at the top of our mats and pressed play. It was the final class from a thirty-day challenge I…

  • Tagging my dreams 🎧

    I couldn’t find my silky sleep mask and was too tired to look for it, so guess who had trouble sleeping? When I finally fell asleep I was treated to unsettling dreams. I’ve noticed this recurring dream pattern for me, where I’m responsible for my niece. I used to regularly dream of a towering wave.…

  • The Little Drop 🎧

    In savasana, I am the worst. At a recent yin yoga session, as we rolled up our mats and put away blocks and blankets, our instructor said, “Much better. I can feel the vibration in here is less chaotic.” My main character energy (flaw) assumed I was the chaos. I was certainly feeeeeling it before…

  • Boxing 🎧

    Back in December, I signed up for a boxing class but had to cancel due to a lower back situation. I kept wondering when I’d sign up again. The owners were super engaging—not in a pushy way. But January had me tending to core work. I dedicated a lot of time to high planks (favorite),…

  • Meatball Harry 🎧

    My emotions are much louder than hers. Sometimes I wonder if I come off as inauthentic, but as I age, so ages my conviction, and I know that I’m not. Next to her, I’m a weeping willow: emotive, romantic, maybe a bit dramatic. But she’s a windswept cypress tree. Uncommon and haunting. They’re not showy…

  • Summer Baby

    It’s too cold for late March in Tampa. I want to be hot. Not in a climate change kinda way (zero waste / vegan, please). I want my skin exposed to warmth wrapping around me. I want the privilege of knowing that whatever space I put myself in can be cooled when I feel like…

  • Gertrude 🎧

    I’m procrastinating. I have about four hours (or more, depending on my focus level) of homework that I could have spaced out between today and yesterday, but instead, I spent yesterday lying in the sunshine, doing laundry, and fake-reluctantly agreeing to a delivery from our favorite vegan restaurant in Tampa. This is supposedly my nineteenth…

  • Rituals

    The end of our walk starts with my daily encouragement to hurry Gigi home by telling her she’s going to get second breakfast. This doesn’t really help at all (she still stops and sticks her face in every damn thing), nor does it discourage her from barking at the passing cars or bike riders on…

  • 인연 🎧

    For my Humanities class, I had to pick a film and a scene within it that I thought best summed up the themes. Here’s SOME of my assignment! For no one’s interest, but mine! Allow me to tell you how much I hate/love working full time, balancing movement/fitness classes, the stress of a Trump era…

  • Major Signs

    Have you ever gone to bed with the dried, sticky sweat still on your body from a workout? No? You’re not disgusting? I don’t recommend it. It’s that sneaky reminder that: depression is back, time to put your gloves on. I woke up with a panicky prognosis from my Oura ring: “Your biometrics show major…

  • Maxine 🎧

    I haven’t felt much like writing for a bit. I got caught up in an early morning yoga and meditation routine that I thought was serving me, but I don’t know. A friend said to me recently that sometimes you can do the healthiest things and still feel terrible, and that makes feeling terrible all…

  • Pass-a-Grille

    I love shell landscaping instead of grass. I love sea grapes and their round bright yellow green leaves. I love man made sand dollars or sea turtles instead of boring stepping stones that lead to a house with pastel colors and a coordinated mailbox made to also look like a house. I love tackily painted…

  • a Picture

    today Gigi had her Silky Terrier (aka prone to tartar and plaque) teeth cleaned and I felt lost without her. I fell in a Whole Foods parking lot (cut open one knee, scraped the other) and bounced up as quickly as I hit the asphalt. I (laughably) hobbled around inside and wondered why it’s so…

  • You’re number one 🎧

    One of our clients has Alzheimer’s, and her children are having to put her in memory care. I also learned that, unbeknownst to her, she has stage four brain cancer. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up in a career like this—one where life events pop up often enough to force you into a headspace…

  • Paper-Cut Hearts

    I love February. I’m a sucker for the colors of Valentine’s Day and all the sweetness that comes with the holiday. I don’t know why, I just think it’s cute. I’m still off social media. Okay, sometimes, at work, I’d skim my (finally deactivated) Twitter feed (which is mostly astrology content creators and X-Files fans),…

  • Chickadee 🎧

    I woke up two days ago thinking about the way my Grandpop Tom sounded when he called us “chickadee.” He was an aeronautical engineer who spent World War II repairing airplanes on base in Morocco until the war was over. But I remember him differently (as a child might) since we lost him to cancer…

  • Write a Letter

    I’m a big fan of letters— writing them and receiving them. I receive them less often than I write them, but what can you do? When I was in high school, I spent most of my time ignoring the recommended reading and focusing on my own curriculum. I preferred female writers from the Regency, Victorian…

  • Closer to the Sky

    I don’t want to write about Barbra Streisand. For one thing, I can’t say anything that someone else hasn’t already said, probably in a more refined and knowledgeable way. I don’t regularly listen to her music. But since listening to her audiobook, I’ve found myself curious enough to download The Second Barbra Streisand Album. I…

  • Detaching from Socials

    The first month of 2025 found me breaking up with social media just ten days in. And gosh, what freedom. I know we shouldn’t look away from the things affecting our communities, and I won’t. But the disconnection from the endless stream of content created by people who are also consuming endless content? It’s a…

  • January Song 🎧

    It’s a dreary Sunday morning, fog and a white-gray sky making the warm temperature seem contradictory. Thankfully, there’s an intermittent breeze, light and cool enough to be comfortable as Gigi and I head out for our regular walk. Sometimes we go through the apartments across the street from our home. She loves this because there…