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Day 12: Listening to Taylor Swift

I was listening to Taylor Swift before breakfast, as you do on Monday mornings. Today I found myself thinking about why. Why do so many of us Millennials find ourselves hooked on her music, singing along every time we’re in the car? /// “Everything was simpler ten years ago,” I told my therapist last week.…

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Day 11: Embracing the Seasons

I’m scared to death of winter. Winter in Minnesota is hard — anybody who lives here will tell you that. Six months from the first snow to the last, face-numbing cold, day after day after day of grey skies. Winter is hard, but the summers make up for it. It’s just part of the deal.…

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Day 10: Learning from My Boys

Today I’m going to tell you four lessons I’m learning from my boys. They’re three and five, and in between legos and hot dogs and Netflix, they’re teaching me about what it means to be human. /// Always run toward people you love. For these boys, life is always the third act of a romantic commedy. Every…

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Day 09: Cooking Good Food

I just got done scraping the last few bits of a delicious supper off my plate. My stomach is about to die of happiness, but hopefully I’ll get this blog post done first. Here’s what I made: I started with brussels sprouts, set in a pot to steam. While they were cooking, I chopped two…

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Day 08: Learning Poetry

  Today is National Poetry day, so I want to share one of my favorites with you. I first heard it from my friend Stephen, during our cross-country road trip at the start of this year. Somewhere in the Utah desert, probably. Though the winter, I had bits and pieces of this poem written on the window…

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Day 07: Playing with Legos

I’m sitting on the floor in the boys’ bedroom next to an ocean of Legos. The three-year-old is building a monster truck, or at least an abstract impression of a monster truck. Every few minutes he lets out a roar — the sort of wordless, guttural howl of frustration that only toddlers know. “UUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!’ I…

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Day 06: Celebrating Bandersnatch

Today we are celebrating the release of my friend Erika’s book: Bandersnatch. I wouldn’t let just anybody interrupt my #write31days series for a book release guest post, but this one seems fitting. Erika Morrison has been one of the people who has taught me the most about becoming human in the past few years: about…

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Day 05: Taking Care of My Body

It’s mid-afternoon, and I just finished “Morning Yoga to Start Your Day.” Some days start harder than others. Especially Mondays. Some days you wake up and shower and get dressed and go downtown for breakfast and then when you come back home, your brain goes blank and you can’t remember how to think or work…

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Day 04: Figuring My Life Out

I had an existential crisis before I got out of bed this morning. This isn’t particularly unusual, although the source was slightly unexpected: Mindy Kaling. I was reading Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (as you do on Sunday mornings) and I came to this essay about men and boys: Until I was 30, I…

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Day 03: Accomplishing Nothing

I accomplished literally nothing today. Outside my windows, shades of dusk are telling me that Saturday evening is here and that I have nothing to show for it. I haven’t bought a couch, built a website, or written anything good. I haven’t even made my bed, cleaned my kitchen, or paid my rent. Sometime after…

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