Bread and Bread

A year and a half ago, I invited some friends to guest blog about a day in their lives . I’m always curious about the nitty-gritty of how people make things work. My mantra lately has been Everyone’s life is secretly held together with duct tape. Since today was my first official day as a full-time working mom,* I am currently interested in how I’m going to make things work. Specifically, when will I write? My options seem to be 5:30 am, lunchtime or 8:30 pm. None of these slots is ideal, but today I’m trying out the latter. And I’m easing into it with a Blog As You Are post of my own because that’s all. I. Can. Manage. 6:05 am: Wake up with pan dulce hangover from yesterday’s mini shindig in our backyard. Vow that this time I really, really will take care of my body. Wonder not for the first time if there is a 12-step group for people who eat well seven days out of eight but then really, really fuck shit up on the eighth day. Feed cats. Feed baby. Feed self. 8:10 ...

Kim Miller has frequently been the only entity standing between me and a full hypochondriac breakdown. She lives a few blocks away from us in Highland Park, but right now she's at a melanoma conference in Philadelphia, which is how the medical jet-set rolls. Here's how she spent a recent day there:* Kim, her daughter Bea and a chicken wearing a monocle, I think. 7:00 AM : My iPhone alarm goes off, set to Digital—the sound that most captures how I feel in the morning, disoriented and robotic.  I’m at the Philadelphia Marriott, room 1244, in town for the 2013 Society for Melanoma Research Congress. I have two scientific posters on melanoma prevention in the conference, one of only 4-prevention focused posters (and the other two are from my research team). 7:50 AM : Sonia, the 4 th year med student who I’m sharing my hotel room with, and I head downstairs for the pre-conference breakfast. We’re moving fast because breakfast ends at 8 AM . We manage to snag some fo...

Joewon is my halfway-around-the-world partner in medical neurosis. She's also a funny and hardworking professor in Seoul, Korea. Here's a recent day in her life. This lake makes me think I need to visit South Korea. 6:50 am. Wake up without much trouble. No nightmare. No active pain in any part of the body. Not a bad start of a day. 9:00 am. After breakfast, walk out the door to go to work. 9:15 am. Pass by the elderly man selling egg bread at the corner of an alley on my walk to my office. He's there every single day, rain or shine. Carefully look away when the grandpa's neatly barbered hairline and threadbare coat collars came into vision as I slip by, for not wanting to be saddened by things that I have no right to find sad. I would make any nearby egg bread seller a very rich man. No more threadbare coats. 9:25 am. Enter office, the usual grind begins. Read for Monday's class. 1:00 pm. Rummage food in the office, instead of bothering to go out...

Chopper--a former student whose novel I hope I'll see in print someday--truly takes the road less traveled. That road led him to rural Virginia, where he built a house with his bare hands. He's a karate instructor who could kick your ass, but as the peace-lovin' tie-dye below might suggest, he would probably choose not to. Here's how he spent Tuesday, October 29. Chopper (left) and his band, Kerosene Willy . 4:45 a.m.: Alarm alarms me. I begrudgingly get out of bed to go meet a karate student at 6. 4:50 a.m.: I remind myself that I choose to do this. 4:55 a.m. I drag a toothbrush across my teeth--pick the sleep from my eyes--put on sweats and hoodie--pack clothes for school. 5:00 a.m. Head out the door--start the truck--sit in the truck for a couple minutes. Blast Cat Empire to help sweep out the cobwebs. 5:05 a.m.: Back the truck up and head down the driveway. 5:25 a.m.: arrive at Frank's Food Mart--get Gatorade and iced tea 5:45 a.m.: arrive at ...

Here’s an unsurprising fact: Back-to-back trips to Puerto Rico and the Salton Sea are wonderful for the mind (I relaxed, did lots of travel journaling, and my cycle of cancer-death-baby thoughts hit an all-time low) and kinda rough on the body (I’m tired, covered in mosquito bites and have a couple of mofongo pounds to work off). But enough about me—onto AK’s account of her vacation with me. AK’s Blog As You Are post is a departure in that it chronicles an exceptional day, not an everyday day. But even fabulous tropical vacations include confusing iPhone directions and cheerily sexist tour guides. I’m excited that you guys finally get to hear AK in her own words, after years of seeing her through the filter of me (she says I mildly misquote her, which I’m sure I do). Now, with no misquoting…. Unlike on our trip to London, it was not hard to find a good mojito in PR. Or a dozen good mojitos. Saturday, Oct. 26 9 am—Alarm on my iPhone goes off in our private room at the ...

When Kristi Nakamura Johnson and I were college roommates, we shared a love of gay men and musicals. Then she started dating straight guys, and I went on to see Rent fourteen more times. But no matter the different paths our lives take, I'll always adore Kristi, who now lives in Sacramento, because she's one of the sweetest, most open-minded people I know. She also knows how to make a back-up Halloween costume in a pinch. Kristi and her biker girl. 8am - Made C a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast. Nursed L while drinking coffee, eating a granola bar and checking email and Facebook. 9am - Transformed C and L into Peter Rabbit and Snow White for a Halloween party at the park. 10am - Changed a crying Peter Rabbit into a Train Engineer after his rabbit pants had a potty accident. Had my husband call the pediatrician after noticing Snow White's ear draining while she nursed. The original Peter avoided potty accidents by not wearing pants. 11am ...

Today's Blog As You Are blogger, Kathy Talley-Jones of Pasadena, California, is one of the least feeble people I know. But even human encyclopedias who spend their free time hiking through the desert have moments of doubt. Read on. Kathy (right), much like her pet tortoise, Kip, enjoys the desert. 3:11 a.m. not yet not yet can’t get up yet 3:24 a.m nope 3:47 a.m. must stay in bed until 4 3:59 a.m. oh all right… 4:03 a.m. What have I gotten myself into? A deadline at 9 a.m. for a script on the power grid of the future what do I know about the grid? For once I haven’t procrastinated but I have to edit and format and come up with ideas for infographics and treatments for interactives and ah shit well I’ve done the best I can tried to make the electric grid fascinating and smart appliances intriguing and 8:58 a.m. SEND If it’s not any good, at least it’s on time. 9:00 a.m. No sign of John. Has he died? Without the normal morning cues he’s slept in, “I have 11 minutes t...

Tracy Kaply , today's Blog As You Are blogger, recently moved from Seattle to Joshua Tree. I'm planning to visit her there soon. I'm expecting dumplings and pie.    From what I know of Tracy, this T-shirt says something snarky. Since I have kidney failure and a panoply of other chronic/terminal illnesses trying to kill me, I don't work, and I am naturally a sedentary creature. So today I committed myself to writing down exactly what I was thinking about at each time the alarm went off. Don't worry, I am properly medicated. 8:20 am Woke up. Assessed situation. Pondered methods of killing birds right outside the window. Decided I was too old to be up this early without a damn good reason. Cat agrees, so we go back to sleep.   9:20 am Fine, I am awake. Cat simultaneously wants me to to get out of the queen size bed, because there isn't room for both of us in here, and he wants me to lay very still so he can be on me. I am starting to think ...

The early bird--and you will see Terry is one--gets the first Blog As You Are Project post! Here is how my fabulous mentor spent Monday, October 21, 2013 in Los Angeles. Terry and her exuberant hair. 6 am- I email my mom, who lives in Detroit, every day. After checking other email, I do my meditations. 7 am - Green shake for breakfast, make one for Yvonne too. Then drive like hell to get to South Pasadena. 8 am - Water aerobics at the South Pasadena Y. 9 am - Shower, dress, drive to downtown L.A. Check email at red lights. 10 am - Meet with Michael Garces about EMBERS opera . When will the universe provide an opening for this to be produced? 11 am - Drive home--through arts district, little tokyo, past grand park, through chinatown--wishing I actually had time to stop and wander through my city. At the State Park a circus is being taken down; red and white stripe tent tops swirled like peppermint candies collapsing to the dirt. How the tent went up. Maybe. ...

When I was in fifth grade or thereabouts, my friend Bonnie threw a Come As You Are party. The idea was that she would call her friends at random times over the course of a week or so after sending out invitations. Whatever we were wearing when she called was what we had to wear to the party. I was wearing nothing special—or rather, I was wearing nothing special for 1988, meaning I was probably wearing turquoise culottes—but I had bare feet, so at least there was that. As for Bonnie, her party outfit would be whatever she was wearing when the first guest RSVP’d. She claimed the call came (this was way pre-Evite) when she’d just stepped out of the shower. I had my doubts. I still think she just wanted to prance around her party in a bikini and a towel.  Bonnie (right), me (second from right) and the Barry sisters, as we were in 1994. Soon I’m going to launch what I’m calling The Blog As You Are Project. I asked a handful of friends/writers/artists to choose one day fro...