There is a Wrong Way to Celebrate Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving is an empty space. Usually there is family. But several members of my extended family blame me for unrest and there is a very large gulf. So holidays are diced into rotating portions of time and energy. Sometimes there is good food, my favorite meal of the year. But I am rarely […]

Processing Trauma of Childhood Hunger

Last week, my therapist and I picked up with EMDR to process more trauma. We intentionally defined a period of my childhood that was brutal, 1979-1983, or the years of 4th to 8th grade. Historically, EMDR has been quite helpful with my lesser traumas and anxiety. The hard stuff hasn’t cooperated and we’ve respected that. […]

#NaBloPoMo: Five Ridiculous Things Genealogists Do

Irish American Pittsburgh

I rarely refer to myself as a genealogist (a word I often struggle to spell), preferring ‘family tree explorer’ or ‘family history documenter’ mainly because genealogists seem to be nuts. Not all of them, not all genealogists. But enough of them are loud enough to suck the fun out of it. Rigidity about who I […]

NaBloPoMo: The Poor Souls In Purgatory

November is National Blog Post Month – the goal is to write a blog post each day of the month. This used to be a big thing with prompts, logos, incentives, etc. Now it is just a solitary pursuit. Today is November 1, 2022. Known to many of us as All Saints Day (a Holy […]

That Year My Parents Forgot About Halloween

Distorted Halloween

I’m pretty sure it was fourth grade so that would mark it as 1979. My younger brother and I came home from school to a locked up house and no sign of our parents. That was not unusual. We didn’t have a key, so we used our array of tricks to gain access to the […]

Update on Pgh Radio Stations Airing Anti-Trans Ad Targeting Children

It is exhausting to have to fight this battle station by station. I am incredibly disappointed that allies with power and influence are not responding to advocate for trans kids. These stations represent the Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers. They have contracts with Pittsburgh Public Schools to air football games. I’m sure there are other stations […]

Disney’s Musical Frozen Comes to Pittsburgh This Week and Here’s Why I’ll Be There

Kristoff and Sven

I have a secret – I have never watched Frozen. Not either movie, not the spin-off shorts, none of it. There’s no particular reason. I like the music. I have niblings who adored everything about it. I even had the CD for awhile on loan and have access to Disney+. Fortunately, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust […]

That Time My 11 Year Old Nibling Connected Representation in ‘The Little Mermaid’ to ‘The Cross Connection’ on MSNBC

My nibling,11, hanging with me this AM while The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross on mute. He watched while we chatted, then said “Everyone on this news show looks like me.” He’s Black. He said “Is this like the new #LittleMermaid for adults?” So there you go Princess Tiffany D. Cross Follow up – we […]

Living With Birthday Anxiety

My birthday is October 22. This year, I turn 52. I’m not at all worried about aging because I was brought up to believe that our 50’s are a great time period. Not THE 50’s but our decade of being 50. To be clear. And that’s proving to be the case. I’m a better version […]

Guilty Verdict for Local Woman Harassing Black Trans Teen and Her Family

This morning, a magistrate judge ruled that local woman Darian Balcom was guilty of harassment after erecting a 9-foot billboard in her backyard. The sign read ‘Transing is Abuse and Homophobia’ and Balcom direct the sign in to the window of a 15-year-old Black trans teen living next door with her multiracial, queer family. , […]