Rita Arens's Blog, page 26

The Cat Came Back

I do love this song. Reasons: unknown.

http://youtu.be/LjMffHG1V_Q

One Moment While Ironing

Tomorrow the little angel has a ceremony to go to for school. She has been bugging me to iron the flounces of her skirt to make them stand out prettily, and of course I keep forgetting. This morning, she left me a note on my laptop. Mommy, please iron my skirt.I wrote it down on my work list: Iron skirt. And I remembered! I ironed it.

I got to the second row of flounces before I started crying.

There I stood in my basement, holding an iron in my hand, thinking about how proud I am of my girl...

That One Pair of Shoes

As I sit on my front stoop every weekday morning with my girl, waiting for the school bus, I check out the fashion statements of today's children. Our bus stop has swelled to eleven kids from three in one year, thanks to some large families moving in. That's a lot of shoes.

Something seemed odd about those shoes for the longest time. Then I realized what it was -- they rotated.

I don't remember which grade I was in, but one year I had burgandy Kangaroos with Velcro AND THE POCKET. God, I was...

Thanksgiving Is a Special Kind of Hell When You're Anorexic

Thanksgiving posts have taken over the internet, and everywhere I look I am confronted with pictures of food.

When I was anorexic, Thanksgiving was my least favorite holiday. My extended family got together, and someone always made pie that not only had half the calories of my daily self-imposed limit, but also came attached with happy childhood memories and the knowledge it was made by someone I loved very much.

Holidays can be hard for any number of reasons, but for anorexics and their peo...

Up Through the Well

I'm nearing the end of my first major revision of THE BIRTHRIGHT OF PARKER CLEAVES. This time, I gave the shitty rough draft to a group of trusted beta readers to get feedback on the general structure of the thing before I tried to make it any good. They helped me see what I should add more than what I should take away. Cutting is so easy. Adding, for me, is harder.

I've found despite my Internet publishing job and my years working with software development, in the end, I still write best l...

The Things Around Me

I remember looking around at older women at my first few jobs (and back then, "older" meant "above 30" and wondering why they got so bedazzled for work.

I also remember doing some work with a high-end useless pretty things shop in Kansas City. I was in the shop when a woman came in and ordered hundreds of dollars in soon-to-die centerpieces, and my twentysomething self threw up in her mouth. Of course, at the time, I lived in a first-floor one-bedroom that butted up to an abandoned building/...

Yellow

The world outside is yellow. The trees in my yard and across the street turn anywhere from dull brown to bright yellow in the fall, depending on how much rain we've had during the summer. This year they're macaroni-and-cheese yellow.

We peered up at the trees last weekend, commenting on how odd it was they hadn't turned yet. It happens so fast. They turned and began falling a few days ago, and now my deck is carpeted in sunshine even as it the sky is gray and rainy.

It reminds me of "All Summ...

Frankenpumpkin

They Made Their House Sing "What Does the Fox Say" with Halloween Lights

Sometimes I love humans.

DJ Nibbles approves.

Pretty Much a Life-Changer

[Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on BlogHer.com.]

Last Saturday, I packed my bag, drove to St. Louis and attended the young adult literature/anti-bullyingLess Than Three Conferencehosted byNew York Timesbest-selling young adult authorHeather Brewer.

I knew it would be interesting, but I didn't know it would be life-changing. The sessions ranged from cyber-bullying to self-bullying to school bullying to LGBTQ bullying and were led by young adult authors who had written novels disc...