Rita Arens's Blog, page 29

A Favorite Feeling

Collapsing on the stairs after finishing a jog. In the humidity, the sweat forms like an internal dropper is pushing it out of my arms, my legs, even my hands, before it slides away to plunk in perfect circles on the cement. In the first few minutes after I plop down, all I can do is breathe and sweat and regulate my heartbeat back down to normal.

I seldom think of sweating as an action, but in the thickness of Missouri's August, it is. Cicadas strike up the band and then stop as quickly as t...

What I've Done About My Pain in the Neck

Since the last time I wrote, I've had acupuncture twice for my back. I really meant to write about this earlier, but man, this week just keeps slipping away from me. I did write a little ditty about what acupuncture feels like today on BlogHer. Hopefully tomorrow will last longer and I can write more.

The Snapping Point

My husband's been in Hartford all week. He left at 4:30 on Monday morning to make a 6 am flight. He gets home around 6 tonight. I'm going to make it.

All week, I've vascillated between really nice, easygoing mother and snarling hellbear. I'm really trying, seriously, but somehow going from midnight bedtimes on vacation to the first week of fourth grade was not an easy transition, especially not when the week kicked off with a bored child home all day Monday and Tuesday while I was working. At...

Another New Normal

Today was my girl's first day of fourth grade. Fourth grade is a big year. The homework starts getting serious. You learn hard math. At least someone in your class starts wearing a bra for realz. The foursquare competition sizzles.

And apparently, you don't want your mother taking pictures of you on the first day of school, even if your father is on a business trip when you start fourth grade.

We woke up early to do her nails, white with gold glitter topcoat. Of course she touched them while...

Welcome to Silver Dollar City: Rape Culture on the Side

[Editor's Note: After being gone part of last week and now behind at work, I don't have time to do this post justice. But I'm going to write it quickly, anyway.]

Last week we went down to Table Rock Lake. Saying we were going to Table Rock Lake was actually kind of a trick, because I didn't realize that Table Rock Lake is actually pretty much attached to Branson, Missouri, the Dollywood of the Midwest.

Even though I knew I was in Branson, I had perhaps unfounded expectations for the entertain...

Should a White Author Write Nonwhite Characters?

Today I wrote a post I've been mulling for weeks over at BlogHer. Here's a teaser -- click the link at the end for the full post!

A few weeks ago, I drove down toThe Writers Placein Kansas City, Miss., (full disclosure: I serve on the board of directors) to talk to a group of around twenty upper middle-school kids about writing fiction. We ended up talking about race.

I didn't start there. I started with writing process. I talked aboout how I wrote my first novel in ever-lengthening Word doc...

My 10-Day, Almost-Total Internet Cleanse

So I've been on about a ten-day social media cleanse. I drove home from Chicago two Sundays ago after BlogHer '13 with my sister. I was home just long enough to unpack, repack, pet Kizzy and kiss Beloved before the little angel and I drove up to Iowa last Monday to stay with my parents for four days, just basically hanging out with family, reading, writing and not working.

We took shelter from a raging monsoon in St. Joseph and bought the little angel her first adult-sized pair of cowgirl boo...

Gone Fishing & A Giveaway of THE OBVIOUS GAME

Hey, there. I'm leaving tomorrow for BlogHer '13. If you are there, I'm speaking on Friday and Saturday on turning your blog post into publishable essays-- if you come to either session, please come up and say hi and be patient with me if I look at you all glassy-eyed because presenting takes a lot out of me but I really like to meet people. Also, I may have met you thirty-five times before but will still ask you your name or your blog because I have the recall of a tree frog.

If you're not t...

Hydrotherapy

There was a day last week when I thought I might crack in two. Something happened with the girl, something happened with me, and I was so stressed out I found myself in my garage with tears coursing down my face, knowing my husband and my daughter and my neighbors were waiting for me in their SUV, ready to take us out on their boat in a beautiful invitation to frolic on Blue Springs Lake.

I'm trying to pretend I am mentally healthy.

I'm trying to model a mother who knows how to deal.

Earlier...

What This White Lady Thinks About the Trayvon Martin Case

Kelly said she's leaning in, waiting to hear. She might not have been talking straight to me, but since Kelly is my race blue pill, I heard her, anyway. I didn't want to. It's a week from BlogHer '13 and I had trouble with my daughter today and I have a million other excuses for why I don't want to talk about Trayvon Martin, but I hear you, Kelly, sometimes you have to talk about things that just piss you off because they are important.

I had just left a soccer match on Saturday night and was...