ABOUT ME

WORRYWART:  ONE WHO WORRIES EXCESSIVELY AND NEEDLESSLY.

In addition to my roles of worrywart, writer and mother, I identify most strongly as a bicycle rider.  But don’t mistake me for a sleek, zippy cyclist hunched over racing-style handlebars.  I am none of that.  Rather, I plod along high and upright, arms spread wide, more Mary Poppins than Lance Armstrong.

As for writing, I lead a nonfiction workshop at a soup kitchen for homeless people and others.  My personal essays have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The Pennsylvania Gazette, and The Washington Post Magazine. After adopting an infant in China in 1986, I wrote a letter home that appears in Womens Letters:  from the Revolutionary War to the Present. For several years, I was an associate editor at Moment Magazine where I wrote about the Chinese perceptions of Jews as well as about people searching for their Jewish gangster roots.  I received a Rockower Award for my profile of sociolinguist Deborah Tannen.

In addition to Worrywart and Moment, I blog for Home Goes Strong and Huffington Post.

Worrywarts can be versatile, so my blog may cast a wide net.  For instance, musings about fears, obsessions and stuff that creeps me out (e.g., worry’s cousins) are likely to seep into my writing. My first post, TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG will give you an idea of my worrying style. And  “WHITE GIRL WORRIES” addresses my, well, worry that I will appear frivolous and insensitive to those with real worries.

I am the divorced mother of three daughters in their twenties, who—being the joys and pride of my life—are what I worry about most.  I live in Washington, D.C. with my aging beagle-bassett, Casey, about whom I also worry.