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I committed a cardinal sin this morning. I forgot my reusable shopping bag when I went to the farmers' market. I left the house in a rush to get the the market before all the good stuff was gone, and in my haste, I left my bag at home. They always have plastic bags to put the produce in, but it wasn't until today that I realized nobody ever really uses them. As I strolled around the market picking out root veggies and the last of the summer tomatoes (and a few green ones for frying), I began to notice that everyone else had their Whole Foods and Trader Joe's bags slung over their shoulders. There was even a token bag from The Strand . What can I say, I live in a hipster neighborhood. And there I was, conspicuously without one. What had started out as a jolly shopping trip turned into a covert operation as I skulked around the stalls trying not to be noticed. But the real trouble began when I got in line to pay. I stood there behind...
Today I got some sad news. Now, it might not be sad to anyone else, but it's sad to me. Turns out Cher is ending her Las Vegas show on Feb. 5. And I have not been to see it yet. You see, I love Cher. A lot. Sure, I realize there are much cooler stars to be in love with. I could swoon over that Bieber kid, but he doesn't have quite the way with wigs that Cher does. Yeah, I could worship Lady Gaga, but Cher's got bodysuits older than her. And say what you will about her, but Cher is a survivor. I've been known to watch the full two-hour long Biography on her and get misty throughout. One of the first records (yeah, a record) I had was "I Got You Babe," from my dad's collection of discarded 45s. She is a force to be reckoned with and is constantly reinventing herself. I could wax poetic about her for paragraph upon paragraph, but that's not really the purpose of this story. Back in 2003, before I really ...
I checked into the hotel with just the clothes on my back, my phone, and my wallet. Minutes earlier, I had walked out of our now-empty home for the last time, having purged the remaining bits of our life into the garbage. Just before I left, I snapped one last picture of our beautiful view of Thomas Circle and tweeted , "I don't live here anymore." It took my breath away how much it hurt. The woman at the hotel desk handed me a package with the clothes I would wear and a purse I was borrowing from my mother. They were the only possessions I had. I swallowed the lump in my throat and went to my room. As I stripped off my clothes and put them into a garbage bag, I thought to myself, "How did I get here? How had I survived the past year? Would I survive what was coming next? What was coming next?" There I was, in nothing, with nothing, and I couldn't fathom how I was going to put my life back together. I didn't know if WH was ever going to get better....