Shouts & Murmurs Rejects: To that one friend in the group chat...

Hi. This post is an interruption from your regularly-scheduled program of “my take on whatever it is that I can’t stop thinking about.” Instead, today I offer you the first of a few of my New Yorker rejections; I’ve been submitting to their Shouts & Murmurs column for a long time. Haven’t been accepted (yet). I’m making it available only to the paid subscribers, for whom I am so very grateful. Thank you!

Spring break(away)!

Wow, your spring break in Italy looks gr8! Sorry about the jet lag in Rome and that your oldest was complaining about all the walking, ha.

A European trip wasn’t really in our budget, lol. An artist’s salary, amirite? So yeah, we went home to Pittsburgh. Plus, it’s the only way to see my 82-year-old stepdad since his Parkinson’s has made traveling impossible. I think I mentioned that—according to the V.A.—he’s “100% disabled”? 😔

So fun, re: popping over (down?) to Naples for that soccer game, err, football match!

We didn’t pop over anywhere, unless you count the one restaurant at the “nice” mall that’s the most handicap-accessible, lol. I can’t tell you how strange it is to see that even though my stepdad relies on my 77-year-old mother for absolutely everything, he still calls the shots in so many ways. The patriarchy (shakes fist in air)!!