I am not part of the walk-and-text culture. I’m barely part of the text culture. But as a writer, who lives alone, my laptop has become one of my best friends. . . . → Read More: Connecting With Friends
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May 2nd, 2012  4 comments  BIKING, BLOGGING, DIVORCE, HOME  angst, cell phones, conversation, friends, keeping in touch, living alone, phoning, staying connected, stress, texting, working alone, WORRY, worrywart, writing The To Do List Dear Susan, I should be working now but instead I’m writing to you. You see, I’m a procrastinator. Please help me stop putting things off! Signed, Puttingthingsoff in Peoria Dear PiP, I’m so glad you asked. I am great at procrastination. Here is one thing I do to procrastinate: I . . . → Read More: Dear Susan: I’m a Procrastinator April 6th, 2012 4 comments BLOGGING, HOME, TIPS addiction, ANXIETY, cognitive therapy, efficiency, organizing, procrastination, putting things off, quotes, stress, TIPS, Twitter, work, WORRY, worrywart Worry is addictive, plain and simple. It hits the same pleasure center of the brain as alcohol and other addictive substances. If you are able to control your intake of other addictive substances, then you can control worry, now that you know how addictive it is. . . . → Read More: Dear Susan from Worried in Wisconsin I was happy that my mind was still logical enough . . . → Read More: Worrywart Logic March 16th, 2012 Leave a comment FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RELIGION, RUMINATIONS aging, angst, logic, natural disasters, safe travel, stress, WORRY, worrywart I’ll give you a moment to digest what it is like for a worrywart to write a book. Try to imagine all there is to worry about. . . . → Read More: Writing-a-Book Worries Recently I wrote a piece called Easy Meditation, in which I shared a method I heard about on NPR. On that NPR segment, the author talked about allowing thoughts to pass through your mind like clouds. . . . → Read More: TIPS DAY: MOMENT OF WORRY February 22nd, 2012 2 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, TIPS, WIRED TO WORRY ANXIETY, Gretchen Rubin, happiness, moment of worry, self-promotion, stress, WORRY, worry tips, worrywart My starter husband Saul and I began dating the week before I entered college; we married after my sophomore year and divorced during my junior year. I emerged from the husband, the garden apartment and the Impala sedan squinting from the sudden brightness of university life. At age twenty, for the first time ever, I . . . → Read More: DIZZY: LIVING WITH MY BOYFRIEND, CIRCA 1967 February 14th, 2012 4 comments DIVORCE, MR. RIGHT/WRONG, STARTER MARRIAGE ANXIETY, boyfriends, breaking up, cohabiting, college boyfriend, living together, nicknames, STARTER MARRIAGE, stress, virginity, WORRY, worrywart Public Service Announcement: Help my article “Dear Customer Service: Thoughts While on Hold” go viral, so companies get the message! Please tweet, comment on it, share! Mom as a little girl at the shvitz w/ her mom, getting beaten with fans Up until I first got my period, I was Susie. In high school, . . . → Read More: THE NAME GAME: HOW DO I SIGN AN EMAIL? SUSAN? SUSIE? SOOZE? SUE? S? s? October 11th, 2011 6 comments CASEY, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS adult calling parents Mommy and Daddy, angst, customer service, fave, names, nicknames, saving time, saving time when emailing, signing emails, signing my name on emails, stress, time, time wasters, wasting time, what to call in laws, WORRY, worrywart Popcorn is one of my favorite comfort foods. It fills me up, is healthful, tastes delicious and I pretend that eating this overflowing pot of it, sprinkled with sea salt, won’t make me feel squeezed in the waist by my elastic waist pants. When my oldest daughter Eliza was a toddler, I thought it would be fun . . . → Read More: ANTIDOTE TO WORRY: POPCORN September 30th, 2011 Leave a comment FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, TIPS activity with kids, antidote to worry, ANXIETY, comfort food, cooking, cooking with kids, I Love Lucy, I Love Lucy baking bread episode, popcorn, popping corn, stress, WORRY, worrywart I’m drowning in junk, buried in boxes, suffocating with stuff. It doesn’t surprise me that all these metaphors point to an untimely end. There would be great irony in getting snuffed out by my stuff, since one of my biggest worries happens to be that I’ll drop dead and my children will have the . . . → Read More: DEATH BY CHOTCHKE Unrelated announcement: My new post “Divorce, Downsizing, Dating & Death.” Share your thoughts. In a previous post 10 Days in New York: Lessons Learned, Worries Amassed, I mentioned seeing a flier that said simply “Sarah Needs a Job .com.” I was so intrigued by this that I went sarah needs a job to Sarah’s . . . → Read More: WORRYWART AS JEWISH MOTHER TO A STRANGER Each time Casey and I come home from a walk, he barks for a treat. And each time I throw a kibble in the air for him to catch. He never does. After he roots around in the wrong direction, I telll him when he’s getting warmer and finally he finds it. Then I always say, “Wow, . . . → Read More: AM I OVER-WORRYING MY DOG’S SELF-ESTEEM? March 31st, 2011 7 comments CASEY, FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RUMINATIONS angst, beagle, catching a treat, dog games, dog self-esteem, dogs, pet games, pet owner self-esteem, pet self-esteem, pets, praising your dog, stress, WORRY, worrywart There’s a lot to learn during 10 days in New York. I learned I can go far north or south on dedicated bike lanes. And once a day someone grouses at me for wheeling crosstown on the sidewalk, not that I blame them. But I do blame the guy who tried to push me off my . . . → Read More: 10 DAYS IN NEW YORK: LESSONS LEARNED, WORRIES AMASSED March 28th, 2011 5 comments BIKING, HEALTH AND SAFETY, RUMINATIONS, TIPS, travel advertising a blog, advertising for a job, angst, Antarctica, barber pole at the South Pole, biking in New York City, biking on the sidewalk and hostile pedestians, fave, fear of losing things, getting pushed off your bike, New York restaurant health ratings, Pole at the South Pole, preventing assualt, raw tuna risk, replacing bicycle helmets, spicy tuna risk, stress, the South Pole, when to replace bicycle helmets, women protecting themselves from assault, WORRY, worrywart Unrelated announcement: How Couples Resolve the Thermostat Wars & Other Domestic Battles Sometimes I think my memories are based solely on photographs. My kids won’t forget anything the way they record themselves every time they change clothes, then post and tag the results on Facebook. Come to think of it, I’m not in a high percentage . . . → Read More: DOCUMENTING MY LIFE PART II, THE PHOTOGRAPHS March 22nd, 2011 One comment BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, travel angst, documenting one's life, family memories, family travel, keeping a journal, making memories, organizing photographs, staycation, stress, WORRY, worrywart Ah, Paris Unrelated Announcement: Check out my recent Home Goes Strong article “Brain Food . . . Simple Recipes to Delight Your Palate & Your Mind.” How do I strike a balance between time spent living and time spent documenting? For example, when traveling, my anxiety about documenting rises. Should I sit . . . → Read More: DOCUMENTING MY LIFE, PART I, THE JOURNAL March 11th, 2011 3 comments BIKING, BLOGGING, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, travel angst, documenting one's life, family memories, family travel, keeping a journal, making memories, organizing photographs, staycation, stress, WORRY, worrywart Riddle: Every family has them, what are they? Answer: Nicknames that are too embarrassing to expose outside the home. Casemaster General After coffee with friends, I return home, open my front door and call to my bassety beagle Casey, “Casemaster General, where are you?” To say he’s non-responsive overstates his activity level. So . . . → Read More: EMBARRASSMENT SHMEMBARRASSMENT February 28th, 2011 12 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, WISHES angst, biking in Beijing, comedians when people don't laugh, dog names, dog nicknames, embarrassment, family nicknames, fave, funny nicknames, handshake and rabbi, Jewish dog, Looking American abroad, peeing in pants at school, pet names, schadenfreude, stress, WORRY, worrywart Unrelated announcement: See my latest article “Inside Top Designer’s Home, Cool Ideas for Comfort and Style.” At times it’s a challenge to dream up worries to write about. For one thing, my busy blogging schedule helps keep my usual disaster scenarios at bay. For instance, I haven’t worried about bedbugs since yesterday. Other times . . . → Read More: WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT? DECISION-MAKING & ITS IRKSOME ALTER EGO, CHOICES February 24th, 2011 7 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HOME angst, blog readership, BLOGGING, dog nicknames, embarrassing nicknames, finding things to blog about, lack of writing ideas, stress, too many choices, WORRY, worrywart, writer's block, writing ideas Unrelated Announcement: See my article 50 TIME-SAVING TIPS FROM SMART, BUSY, HIGHLY EFFICIENT WOMEN (AND MEN) “Saturday Night Live” ought to do a skit about their contrived lovefest at the end of the show. What up with the forced hugging? Sometimes the embraces look genuine, like with Taylor Swift the night she hosted. Robert . . . → Read More: THE SNL HUG, WHAT UP WITH THAT? February 22nd, 2011 4 comments RUMINATIONS angst, coolness, lovefest, phony hugging, Saturday Night Live, SNL, SNL hug, stress, WORRY, worrywart (Whether you are my age or pre-memory loss, please share this with parents and friends who’ve crossed the line.) What was I was just thinking to write about? Oh yeah, memory loss. That sounds like a bad joke, but it’s what I actually said to myself when I opened this file to write about my . . . → Read More: QUINTUPLE TIPS DAY, MEMORY & A DIRTY OLD MAN February 17th, 2011 One comment FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, PUBLIC SPEAKING, THINGS I WORRY ABOUT, TIPS Agatha Christie, age-related writing deterioration, angst, dirty old men, forgetfulness, forgetting to take medication, how to remember to take medication, memory, memory loss, memory tips, memory triggers, mental checklist, mnemonic systems, remembering to take medication, short term memory loss, stress, WORRY, worrywart Unrelated announcement: See my latest Home Goes Strong article, LOOKING FOR A WARM COMFORT FOOD MEAL? WARM RECIPES FOR CHILLY NIGHTS. Like me, does everyone become as frozen as Michelangelo’s David whenever they think of all their photographs fading in plastic bags, on sticky non-archival album pages, and loose in various boxes, chests and . . . → Read More: PHOTOPHOBIA* February 10th, 2011 3 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, travel adrenaline, angst, bungee jumping, organizing digital photographs, organizing photographs, phobias, photographs, photos, pictures, stress, WORRY, worrywart The quest for happiness is popping up everywhere these days: in books, college courses, blogs and on Oprah. In the same way my oldest daughter, when she was little, shared her life with invisible companions Sibby and Babby, Worry and Quest for Happiness accompany me wherever I go. Like sibling rivals, they argue constantly, . . . → Read More: AM I HAPPY ENOUGH? HOW DO I KNOW? February 1st, 2011 5 comments BIKING, BLOGGING, CASEY, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, MR. RIGHT/WRONG angst, bragging on Twitter, contentment versus happiness, DIVORCE, divorce and happiness, fave, happiness, happiness and jealousy, happiness peaks, happy, happy after divorce, how happy am I, measuring happiness, Oprah, stress, WORRY, worry and happiness, worry list, worry wart Unrelated: Check out “The Best Food to Come out of Philly Since the Cheesesteak,” my post on Home Goes Strong. Valentine’s Day, 1991, New York City. My then-(China hand)-husband and I knew a young Chinese couple. The sweet wife Mei Ling, who was exquisite to look at with her porcelain complexion and appleseed eyes, sometimes . . . → Read More: HOW DOES AN ATHEIST PRAY AND SHOULD AN AGNOSTIC CONSIDER HER OPTIONS? Following one’s daughter on Twitter carries risks for a worrywart. Especially when that daughter tweets all day long. Last weekend my daughter (the tweeter) threw a birthday party for herself at a bar where I knew she would be surrounded by loads of friends. It never occurred to me anything would go wrong. But . . . → Read More: A MOTHER’S TWEETMARES January 25th, 2011 2 comments FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, travel angst, ANXIETY, birthday parties, Bogota, danger, danger when traveling, fave, fear of kidnapping, following kids on Twitter, parties gone wrong, stress, tweeting, Twitter, worried mom, WORRY, worry about adult children, worrywart Unrelated announcement: Check out my Home Goes Strong article Thinking About a Valentine Dinner? How About Red, Pink, White . . . & Wine With a Heart? In How Annoying Am I Part I, I outlined how annoying I am to my daughters. After posting that, I observed another annoying pattern in myself: the failure to . . . → Read More: HOW ANNOYING AM I? PART II TANGENTIALLY-RELATED ANNOUNCEMENT: See my Home Goes Strong article “Throw an Ugly Sweater Party, It’s all the Rage.” Everyone has been inviting me to their Ugly Sweater Parties. Everyone has been inviting me to his or her Ugly Sweater Party. Even though “everyone” sounds like a truckload of folks, the singular “his or her” is . . . → Read More: WORRIED WHAT YOU’LL THINK January 16th, 2011 7 comments BLOGGING, RUMINATIONS, WIRED TO WORRY angst, ANXIETY, BLOGGING, grammar, possessive pronouns, stress, what others think, what people think, worried, WORRY, worrywart PART I: HOW ANNOYING AM I TO MY DAUGHTERS? Repeating myself “Mom, you’ve told me that ten times!” Asking too many questions Just after exchanging I love you’s and mwah’s at the end of a phone convo, suddenly a string of questions spills out of my mouth like bubbles from a wand. “What are you . . . → Read More: HOW ANNOYING AM I? PART I January 13th, 2011 9 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME angst, annoying moms, annoying my kids, Bedbugs, being annoying, difficult restaurant customers, fave, stress, WORRY, worrywart Unrelated announcement: A MAGICAL USED COOKBOOK SHOP & A DIVINE COOKIE RECIPE I’m addicted to worry. Not long ago, I wrote a Huffington Post post, Worry Less: 10 Lessons From Cognitive Therapy, in which I advised, “Be aware that rumination and obsession are like drugs, in a bad way. They activate the pleasure center of the . . . → Read More: ADDICTED TO WORRY January 7th, 2011 2 comments BLOGGING, HEALTH AND SAFETY, RUMINATIONS, TIPS, WIRED TO WORRY addicted to worry, angst, ANXIETY, cognitive therapy, stress, WORRY, worrywart RELATED ANNOUNCEMENT: SEE MY HOME GOES STRONG ARTICLE, 11 More Great Ways to Deter Break-Ins, Readers Speak Out. It was Christmastime. I was ten years old and playing on the adding machines in my father’s office. I walked down a narrow hallway to show the secretary my string of numbers. At the end of the . . . → Read More: ADVICE FROM BURGLARS January 3rd, 2011 2 comments FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, TIPS angst, burglary, home security, protect your family from intruders, protect your home, robbery, stress, tips from burglars, tips from robbers, WORRY, worrywart It’s been a longie since my last Tip Day. I’m worried you’ll think I’ve run out of tips. To be honest, I’m a little worried myself. So today, when a positive thought visited me, I wondered how I could put a worry spin on it. Then I remembered long-neglected Tip Day! (There are so . . . → Read More: LONG OVERDUE TIP DAY + A BONUS DIET TIP December 28th, 2010 2 comments BLOGGING, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, TIPS, travel, WISHES angst, ANXIETY, dealing with worry, diet tip, eating ribs, memory, overeating, remembering, self-help, short vacation anxiety, stress, WORRY, worrywart UNRELATED ANNOUNCEMENT: Check out my article, FOUR 4-INGREDIENT ENTREES . . . QUICK, EASY, DELICIOUS & HEALTHFUL! A few days ago I went into the basement (scary basements, a whole topic unto themselves) to put away an old file and came across an article I wrote while deeply involved in my X’s 1992 race for . . . → Read More: GETTING LICKED December 24th, 2010 4 comments BLOGGING, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS angst, campaign minutiae, campaign spouses, campaign wives, minutiae, political campaigns, political mail, political minutiae, political spouses, political wives, postage stamp subliminal messages, postage stamps, stress, sweating the small stuff, WORRY, worrywart |
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