Eat the Damn Cake

How do you feel about being naked?

Do you walk around naked? Do you sit naked? Do you ever stand naked in front of the mirror?

I was in love with my naked body. At fourteen, I sat on the floor with my biggest sketchbook, back straight, legs in what my ballet teacher had called “the butterfly.” I was naked in front of a full-length mirror. I was going to capture myself.

(well, i can’t exactly post a naked picture here, can i? source)

Virginia, of Beauty Schooled (who I finally met in person last week! She is as awesome as she sounds!),  wrote about being naked here. She made me think, as she always does. (And then, as I always do, I copied her idea for my own post.)

I’m sitting here, wearing a lot of clothes, trying to organize my thoughts about this. I think, “Powerful,” and then, “vulnerable.” I think of myself with boys. I think of myself alone. Nakedness sounds sexual, automatically, but every day we stand in the shower, even on the days we don’t have sex or even find someone to flirt with. We change our clothes. I take off most of my clothes every time I come home. I take off my earrings,  my socks. I put on pajama pants and a tank top. Most clothes are a part of my outside world self. Especially a bra. Why wear a bra when no one is around to notice your nipples?* Continue Reading »

Time Magazine recently featured an article by Lauren Sandler called “The Only Child: Debunking the Myths.” It is about the stigma placed on only children and their parents, the pressures parents face to have another, and another. The idea that one is always just the beginning. Sandler points out that only children tend to succeed (academically, socially, in terms of their fashion sense and ability to pick the best pizza toppings) at higher rates than those with siblings. She talks about raising a kid in this economy, and why it might not make sense, on a very practical level, to have more.

Long stereotyped as spoiled misfits, Sandler argues that only children are pretty great. I read this article not only because I think the word “singleton” is hilarious, but because it’s true that people say, “So, when do you think you’ll have kids?” Plural.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote a hot refute of the piece in The Jewish Standard, arguing that parents who think about having children in terms of whether or not they will make life more difficult are being selfish. He’s like, “The disgustingly selfish Time Magazine writer asks parents to think about whether having another child will make them happier. THEM HAPPIER. As though a child is some sort of high-tech gizmo or fashionable accessory!” (This is not exactly what he says, which is why I used the word “like.” See, Mom? There are times when it’s completely appropriate and not just a frustratingly teenaged substitution for “said.”)

Honestly, I’m not sure how people have children without thinking somewhat practically about how the decision will change their lives. Continue Reading »

Everyone is addicted to food. I mean, we all have to eat. But I can tell that some people are less addicted than I am. They act like they don’t think about it as much as I do. And they eat as though eating is something they do on the side, in between other, more important things.

In movies and on TV, I see montages of stressed police detectives and hardworking artists and secret agents who forget to eat for days. Someone finally brings them pizza. They’re living on coffee, if they remember to drink at all. I always notice, because it makes me hungry. They’ve just jumped out a window and landed on a moving truck, used a pistol to shoot five guys with machine guns, and jumped lightly to their feet after being stabbed in the leg, but when they don’t eat lunch for the third day in a row, I’m gesturing at the screen and going, “Come ON! This is RIDICULOUS! Who even likes this stupid show?”

One of my most vivid memories from my wedding day was the California wrap I ate while getting my hair done in the bridal chamber. It was the most delicious wrap I have ever eaten. It had grilled chicken, lettuce, avocado, and Caesar dressing. It should’ve been normal, and unimpressive, but it was so moist and the ingredients so fresh and perfectly balanced. The chicken was soft and juicy, with a ping of crisp to the skin, the avocado was ripe and thick and flavorful. The dressing must’ve been a special invention of a chef, because it didn’t taste like the kind you buy off a shelf. The lettuce was springy and new.  Someone ordered it for me, from a local place. I don’t know what place, and it bothers me. Even then, I thought, “I should find out where this came from.” And then I thought, “It’s your wedding day! You’re not going to remember some sandwich you ate that morning!” Continue Reading »

I was sitting on the 1 train, going down to Canal street, reading, when someone tapped my knee. I looked up from my book. There was a tiny girl standing in front of me. She said, “What’s your name?”

I said, “Kate.”

She said, “It’s Kate?”

I said, “That’s right. What’s yours?”

She told me. I said, “That’s pretty,” even though I hadn’t quite understood her.

She said, “How old are you?”

I said, “Twenty-four, how old are you?”

“Five.” Continue Reading »

Sometimes I look at other women and am awed by all of the things that they know how to do, that I don’t even come close to understanding. Like:

How they wear thin white long-sleeved shirts when it’s really warm and don’t get giant sweat stains under the armpits.

How they wear high heels when they have to walk places

How they get eyeliner to make those thick, uninterrupted lines around their eyes, without showing skin on that little ledge the inside of the lid makes along the bottom of the eyeball. Or without poking their eyeballs with the pencil.

How they look graceful.

How they exercise all the time.

How they diet all the time. Continue Reading »

This is a little story that makes me proud of myself.

I only went to one party in college. It was a “welcome freshman” barbeque at the campus Hillel. (What could be more bangin’?) I don’t remember eating anything. I was standing in line to get something to eat when a boy materialized in front of me and said, “I like your shirt.”

I looked down. It was pink. Salmon, really.

(I don’t know why I find that funny. I’m really sorry. Source)

“Thanks,” I said.

He grinned slyly. It was actually sly. He said, “So you’re a freshman?”

“Yup,” I said. “You must not be.”

He laughed. “I graduated last year. Just got some buddies here. I’m in med school. In New York City.”

He said New York City like that meant “The land of sexy grownups.” Continue Reading »