Welcome

Hi. It’s the weekend. We could use a month of weekends, right now, I think.
Rest up.
Take care of yourselves.
Love each other.

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Woke up today with a little creak in my hip as I got out of bed and thought, wow, I’m really feeling my age. Then thought about how we have been socialized to believe that it’s a bad thing to “feel your age” especially if you’re a woman. Especially if you’re over 40. Isn’t that awful? So this is just to say: I FEEL MY AGE. And how lucky am I to be able do so! I’ve lost friends who never got to this age (51!) because we lost them to cancer, covid, strokes, accidents, even, horrifically, murder.

How I wish they could’ve been here with me, feeling our age together. How I wish they could’ve seen this mad world, seen their kids grow up, joined me as the aunties at protests, handing out ibuprofen and moist towelettes, joked with me about going to bed at 9:30pm when that used to be when we went out for dinner.

I feel my age. What a damn privilege.

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The sky.
The lake.
This city.
Grateful for all the gorgeous days of summer. Banking the feel of the warm sun on my face for the gray days of winter.

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Hi.

Nothing really profound to say today. But I do like how the sunlight filtered through an orange umbrella gives my hair this reddish-purplish tint. (Am I procrastinating right now? Maybe. Definitely. A little.)

Happy Wednesday!

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Fun fact. When I was a kid there were a couple summers I wanted to be an astronomer. I didn’t know all the specifics of what astronomers did but after a visit to @adlerplanet in 3rd grade I thought it would be unbelievably cool to study stars. To figure out how to go to other planets. To visit them. I remember being fascinated that gazing at a starry sky was like looking back into time. I remember being confused about spacetime as I tried to wrap my 9yo brain around that twin paradox of space travel. The universe is so full of mystery!

Spoiler: I didn’t become an astronomer. Other dreams and ambitions took over but I still find our universe endlessly fascinating. So I took that wonder and dreamed up a character and then a book. Amira—the elder sibling of the fun-loving, wise-cracking, butt-kicking duo in my Amira & Hamza novels. And she’s fascinated by astronomy. In book 1 she put her science knowledge to good use. And in book 2, she’ll be at it again as she tries to rescue her brother, find an ancient mystical ring and figure out a way to save the world (again!)

AMIRA & HAMZA: THE QUEST FOR THE RING OF POWER is out next month! If you haven’t read book 1, it’s a great time to grab it and share with the little science geeks in your life.

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