The amazing Viola Davis was on Jimmy Kimmel the other day, talking about, among other things, the care-and-tending of an Afro, the dangers of an MRI, and menopause. Jimmy asked her how long menopause lasts, and Viola said—without missing a beat—that someone needed to tell her, because it had been going on for five or six years with no end in sight. Her interview reminded me of a piece I …
GOOP
in which I share a cup with Gwyneth Paltrow
I have a Very Big Birthday coming up in two months. REALLY BIG. As if to celebrate that fact, my body has started to disintegrate. I have this twingey thing in my knee, and then there’s that little hitch in my hip, and my neck sounds like there are cornflakes in it. Plus I have a shoulder thing. I don’t know if years of waitressing, back in the twentieth century, …
split screen
3:47AM “Mommy my head hurts so bad and I’m freezing,” says the whispered voice in my ear. I am awake. Check the clock. Groan (quietly, I hope; don’t want to psychically scar the sick child). Usually these pre-dawn wake-ups are Caleb with a bad dream. He tells me about the dream, then flops onto what we call the dog bed (see above: children may well already be scarred, who knows). …