She is a famous author. At the time we met, she was in her early-to-mid fifties. What I noticed first about her were her feet, misshapen by bunions and corns, toes crowded and crossing over to form toe braids. But these feet weren’t hidden in orthopedic shoes or sensible...
In my mid-30s, I briefly dated a psychologist. I don’t remember much about him except that his preferred patient was a YAVIS: Young, Attractive, Verbal, Intelligent and Successful. The term was new to me. YAVIS problems, he told me, were more interesting. YAVIS patients had agency and choice and...
I held my breath reading Neal Gabler’s viral Atlantic story, The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans, which Next Avenue’s Richard Eisenberg later wrote about. Was it reckless or brave, I wondered, to admit to the world that you could not put your hands on $400 to pay for an...
None of us expected to be here — broke or near broke, unemployed or underemployed, working part-time at a job we hate with little to nothing in our savings account. Continue reading on Nextavenue.
He is beautiful, the color of caramel candy. Seventy years old, he stands easily over six feet tall. A white gray beard frames his face and ropey locks the same color hang down his back. He is barefoot and shirtless always, dressed only in jean shorts, cut high on...
©2019 55 & Faking Normal, LLC. All rights reserved.