Though I have continued to not update this blog, I have been tracking every day since COVID-induced shelter-in-place started in San Francisco. Today is Day 215. It's the third day of another heatwave, temperatures up to 95 degrees. I don't remember it ever being this hot in San Francisco for this many days in a … Continue reading Day 215
grief
Protected: hello from the other side*
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
25 before 26
new things
Immortality, lost and not quite found
Yesterday, I spent over two hours injecting cancer cells into mice, looking through a glass barrier in full, identity-erasing protective gear. As I did this, I listened to a Longform interview with Wesley Yang, of "Paper Tigers" fame. When the Longform hosts introduced him, they noted how unique he is among their interviewees in his … Continue reading Immortality, lost and not quite found
Five years and counting
I am remembering for some bizarre reason the last time my boyfriend cooked rice. "You rinse it first, right? Until the water turns clear?" I'd forgotten I ever told him to do that. My mother used to nag at me to rinse the rice before cooking it, and I never did because it seemed like … Continue reading Five years and counting
Update: publications and writing residencies
A bit late, but I am pleased to report that my poem "Writing Elegies Like Robert Hass" appears in the current issue of the Intima, a lovely journal of narrative medicine, which is sort of a running theme of this first manuscript. I've buckled down and started submitting a lot more, so hopefully I will have … Continue reading Update: publications and writing residencies
Incubation
Sometimes I feel like there’s something in my chest trying to bubble out, and I don’t know what it is. I think it would be more bearable if I did know, but maybe not. Yesterday was my dad’s birthday, and all he did was go out for lunch at a cheap mediocre Chinese buffet the … Continue reading Incubation
grief spasms
I know a guy who lost his mother in high school, and he is so even-keeled and unflappable and successful, I don’t understand it. Every day, I see him in lab, and I want to ask him, “How are you so normal and functional? Do you ever dream about her? How can you live without … Continue reading grief spasms
