I went to bed last night with one of those headaches that prevents you from doing anything other than lay quietly in a darkened room and pray for unconsciousness.  It started coming on towards the end of my class and increased in power when I walked outside and discovered a $30 parking ticket tucked neatly […]

Sometimes I wish that I could send myself, the Marisa I am now, back in time a few years to talk to the me I was back then.  I would give myself a little reassurance that things would be okay.  I would be careful not to tell myself too much about the future, I wouldn’t […]

For the last few weeks, my sleep has been uneven and uncomfortable.  I would wake up nearly every night, sometime just before dawn, trying to shake the remnants of an unsettling dream.  This is unusual for me as I’ve always been one of those people who sleeps solidly and without interruption for at least 8 […]

I woke up this morning from a dream in which I was stranded on an island*, far away from home, with no way of contacting anyone I loved and let them know that I was still alive.  This is the third time I’ve had a dream like this recently, although it’s feeling more like a […]

I came home yesterday evening to an email in my inbox that was drastically different from the ones I normally receive.  It was from a producer at the local ABC affiliate here in Philly, telling me that they really like my website (not this one though) and would like to feature me in a segment […]

I got up this morning at 6:30 am, after only about six hours of sleep, to pick my friend Seth up and take him to the airport.  I’ve mostly worked off the karmic debt I accrued by forgetting him a couple of times when I had promised an airport pick up or drop off, these […]

During the time my ex-boyfriend and I were together, he was a grad student.  His classes were during the late morning and early afternoon, and he would often work late into the night and sleep until the last possible second in the morning (or sometimes afternoon).  I used to scoff at this schedule, chiding him […]

Over the course of my life, I’ve come to believe in a variety of task-specific angels.  The first one to develop was the parking angel, who my mom, my sister and I would entreat with varying levels of sincerity to find us a good parking spot, near to wherever we might have been headed that […]

Last night, in the space between sleep and awake I had a moment of lucid imagination.  I saw myself walking into a room of women.  One woman had a stomach that stuck a good three feet out in front of her, while another was dowdily dressed, meek and timid.  One had facial features that were […]

I woke up today feeling as if my dreams had infused my being with extra light and buoyancy. Writing the profile about Mrs. B had kept me up until 2 am, but it had been invigorating and enlivening instead of enervating. Looking at my face in the bathroom mirror after a shower, I […]