Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and I hope that you all enjoy at least one splendid meal in the next few days. If you are spending this Thursday in a manner that is more than a simple precursor to a midnight shopping bonanza, then I would like to join you in taking a day to express a little gratitude. I am, of course, so thankful for family, friends, health, comfort and the many little joys in my life. But who wouldn't be thankful for such bounty?  The real reason to reserve an entire day for giving thanks is to scour the bottom of the daily barrel of experience to find a way to be …

My daughter Scout is as mouthy as I am, except she's always had a smaller mouth.  This must be the reason she needs braces and I, having been blessed with the kind of oral cavity that Mick Jagger would envy, did not. Braces on a middle schooler are practically a fashion accessory.  In fact, as we made our way to the orthodontist yesterday, I tried to convince Scout that braces count as an expensive early Christmas present. Why not?  They cost the same as 30 pairs of Uggs or half of a solid used car.  In fact, my concern for the financial impact blinded me to the actual trauma of watching my …

I'm no etiquette expert.  I do not own silverware which actually contains silver and I am not sure how formal events are planned because I had a wedding that took place outside the food court of a mall. I make my kids write thank you notes when I remember to do so and I don't call adults by their first names unless I know them. However, I would really like it if there could be some ground rules for social behavior that stressed the importance of being civil. I would never go so far as to compel kindness from those reluctant to offer it.  I was thinking more along the lines of asking for a …

Two days a week, the boys from Heritage High School in Loudoun County come to my store.  On Tuesdays, they drop off their teachers' drycleaning, and they return on Thursdays to pick it up. For each boy there is a teacher monitoring effective communication and safe public behavior.  For each boy there is at least one diagnosis of a disorder on the autism spectrum. The most common visitors are Tommy, Arjun, and Wallace.  After three months of seeing me regularly, it was only today that Wallace looked me in the eyes.  It was a pretty big deal. Arjun is far more social and once asked my husband …

The South Lakes varsity football team is having some difficulty earning a win this season.  That is to say that every game so far has resulted in a loss. I could assert that nobody ever learned from winning all the time or that struggle breeds character, but I am sure the players have the support of parents and coaches letting them know these things. I also know that some of the love of the sport is dulled by having to parse out a season into better and worse defeats. As a Fairfax County parent, I am also aware that it is my supreme responsibility to support winning.  Parenting is a high-…

My daughter Scout has informed me that it would be awesome if I could drop her off at various social engagements without actually getting out of the car or even coming within 500 yards of the venue in question. "Mom, your shoes are painfully weird," I was told as if that was sufficient explanation as to why I had to park three houses down when taking her to a sleepover. My shoes are weird.  Painfully so.  My shoes inspire unpleasant neurological sensations in my offspring.  Well, isn't that something? "Well, at least I know better than to wear shorts and boots.  You look like you can't decide…

Let me first assert that I am neither an advocate for the United States Postal Service nor am I calling for its dismantlement.  I'm just a postal customer. However, when I heard that the average American receives a handwritten piece of personal mail once every seven weeks, I was wondering who was getting my share. I can nearly guarantee that anything which arrives in the mailbox and is personally addressed to me is a request for payment.   The closest thing to a letter I've received in the past year was the postcard from the vet on the back of which checkmarks had been made in the boxes next …

I received the email just like every South Lakes High School parent did.  Today, our students practiced the lockdown procedure, a drill for the horrifying possibility that an intruder or other malevolent force would be on the premises and thus endanger the students. It is an idea too scary to entertain and the fact that a drill had to be developed to address the potential event makes me ill. But it does make me think. If our kids are practicing for the worst moments of their lives in order to make them a little safer and better prepared, then maybe the drill agenda should expand a little. …

Dear Cups Full of Hope, I want to thank you for the invitation to donate a bra that reflects the woman I am and the women whose lives are affected by breast cancer. I am not a pink-ribbon wearer, or a gal who runs for causes.  I look sallow in pink and my motto is to not stand when I can just as easily sit and not sit when I can just as easily lie down. Even so, I want you to know that I think that your innovative, artistic effort to call attention to a disease which directly affects one in eight women and indirectly affects multitudes more is fantastic. But we have to talk. In order to …

Both of my Ivy-League-educated siblings live in the middle of exciting city neighborhoods.  They walk to restaurants and bakeries, enjoy the bustle of urban life, and bask in the cultural richness of living in a historic city. They speak of the suburbs with the same horror that others use to discuss necrophilia or acid-washed jeans. I hear about the sterility and anonymity of cookie-cutter neighborhoods and box stores.  I am aware of the perception that I live among people who obsess about lawn care and cookie sales.  I get it. But I also have the privilege of parking in any one of a number …

My daughter Poe will be five years old next month, which makes her one of the oldest children at her preschool.  She misses the Fairfax County Public School kindergarten deadline by two and a half weeks and will get to spend her whole academic career reaching milestone birthdays before many of her classmates. This is particularly advantageous for her because she is younger than her siblings by seven and nine years respectively (but not very respectfully).  Poe has faith in her own maturity. She often asks to be allowed to stay at home alone instead of attending soccer practices or school …

The Greater Reston Arts Center has a new format for its annual C-Note Sale.  Instead of the traditional lotteryesque system (wherein patrons bought a ticket for $100 dollars and were called in turn to select from the available arts pieces), this year's sale will rely on a system which drives such merchandising events as Black Friday. First-come, first-served will be driving the GRACE event this year.  In addition to rewarding shoppers who take the time to preview the atrwork (currently underway and continuing until the sale begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday), it allows artists to submit more than …

On the first day of school my children handed me a pile of forms as high as my knee. On the second day of school my children handed me two requests for money and a pile of forms as high as my knee. On the third day of school my children handed me three different dates for Back-to-School Night, two requests for money and a pile of forms as high as my knee.   Well, we are only three days in, so the rest of the list is hypothetical.  While we bit the bullet and purchased a calculator last year that should probably set the table and fold the laundry for the amount we spent on it. Having two math …

Most of my knowledge of Virginia geography comes from one of three sources:  a)  Having visited a Civil War battle site there  b)  Having gone to a mall there c)  Having watched my daughter play soccer there.  I have learned plenty from the first two, but my most important educational experiences have come from being a soccer spectator. Allow me to share this instruction. 1.  Do not give a younger child money for the snack bar.  That single dollar for a bottle of water will become a steady flow of currency invested in Ring Pops and off-brand sports drinks.  Preschoolers ramped up on sugar and…

I wake up and I sometimes feel irrelevant.  It's still dark and I'm still tired.  I will shower and put on a uniform and a name tag so that strangers can call me by my first name when they tell me the ways that I could be of greater service to them. I own this small business and the seven people I employ depend on me to solve the minor problems that will arise today.  I try to tell them the things which will prevent the problems from happening. Check the tag to see if the dress is made in China or Vietnam.  Chinese dyes tend to run and that black-and-white colorblock dress which used to …

Dear Henry, Don't read this today.  In fact, don't read this until you are no longer a freshman.  You can even wait longer.  There's no rush. I am writing this today because you will enter South Lakes High School in one week, and I cannot believe how quickly we got to this point.  Do you remember it all?  Do you know how proud I am of you? Just like you, I was my parents' first child and I remember being your age and feeling like the first-born kid is a little like the first pancake in a batch.  Nobody's sure how the process will go.  The edges are a little rough.  Subsequent ones are formed …

To quote the great American poet Tom Petty, "The Waiting Is the Hardest Part." While we are usually quite fortunate when it comes to hurricanes, our area is bracing for the unpredictable weather that lies before us this weekend.  After all, we've already had an earthquake this week so we're a little tense about our planet's hospitality. So, we will take the necessary precautions.  Maybe we'll bring the outdoor furniture in.  We'll make sure our pets have a warm, dry place to spend the next couple of days.  We'll stock up on batteries, bottled water and toilet paper. We will charge our cell …

My life is a mess.  My house is a mess.  My papers are in total disarray.  My dogs are not groomed.  At any given point, at least one of my children needs a haircut. But none of this is for lack of effort.  In my mind, I am always in control of the things around me.  I know about the mess, the disarray, and the lack of grooming (both canine and human) and this knowledge makes the disorder seem orderly. In other news, I am also a hypochondriac.  Part of this is because I have a tendency to assume that every event will end in catastrophe and part is because my dad was a doctor and I could never…

I would have had an awesome haircut if it weren't for that stupid earthquake.  That's what I'm going to be telling people until these accidental layers grow out. I went in with a bob and came out with a shag.  Think David Cassidy when he was a Partridge but without the leather choker or huge lapels.  For real. I just happened to be in the salon when yesterday's earthquake hit.  Now, I am a reasonable person and I understand the two most important facts in this matter. Firstly, I am quite aware that there was no way my very competent stylist could have known that tectonic plates rumbling …

To My Son's Teachers This Year, I understand that you all are managing dozens of students and have many issues to consider as you prepare for the new school year so please do not misunderstand this missive as an attempt to add to your workload. I am actually trying to help you out.  You see, one of this year's newest Seahawks will be my son Henry and I thought you might want to know a few things from the outset. Henry is smart and he is funny.  The emails you will soon be sending me will start out by informing me of these two traits and I just wanted to save you the trouble.  I already know. …