On time, seasons, San Francisco, fog, and changing your life — I. On Small Seasons and Long Calendars I recently moved to San Francisco. A friend visited last month. We grew up together in a suburb of Philadelphia, and in most of my high-school memories, it’s freezing cold. I assume this is how everyone who grew up on the east coast remembers high school, because the “school” part…

On premature nostalgia — “I was so busy setting up my life I didn’t realize… those were the good years! Those were the years when I should have been paying attention.” A fifty-something-year-old friend said this to me yesterday. We were talking on the phone. I was pacing my living room, obsessing over all…

When nothing is certain, focus on what you can control — As Jimmy Kimmel tweeted last night, “This is like being awake during your own surgery.” When will it end? Who knows! We’re caught somewhere between refreshing the same four websites, stress-eating what’s left of our election night snacks, and thanking our forefathers/mothers for blessing this country with the confusing mess…

I’ve read it 10 times — Six years ago, I sort of forgot how to write. I’d been publishing on the internet for a little over a year — that first, embarrassing, thrilling, bringing-a-laptop-to-parties year (I’m fun at parties) — and I’d run out of things to say. What used to be casual, fast, easy breezy…