Generally speaking, one of the least sexy parts of any relationship is toilet cleaning. How often and by whom a bathroom gets cleaned speaks volumes about the people living in the home.

I am no clean freak but I hate to see brown stains in the toilet bowl, toothpaste flecks on the mirror, and hairs in the sink. In our house, it is the person who notices the dirt who ends up cleaning. My husband insists that’s him and I am sure it’s me.

Frank and I have managed to raise two wonderful kids, build and maintain our home, pursue…

I am happy, a dancer, and a mom. I perform in schools, libraries and at cultural events as Hadama Seshat.

American Cabaret style belly dancers choose a stage name that reflects their aesthetic or higher calling. When I joined The Crescent Dancers in 2002, I needed a name. My screen name “Happydancermom” could be contracted to “Hadama.” I loved the idea that my mom would be there in the “ama,” which is what my son had called her when he couldn’t say “grandma.” …

I was safe in my mother’s loving arms. Looking into her eyes and reaching up to touch her face while I drank my bottle the world was perfect.

When I got bigger she bounced me on her knee and told me stories, made me laugh. “Here we go to Boston, here we go to Lynn. You better watch out or you might fall IN!” and her lap would open and she would dip me down. Then we would laugh and hug.

I wonder if I ever would have grown up and left home if she didn’t put me down, tell…

50 WORDS

Liked it from the first sip
Held the bottle like a rattle
More more more!
The beer that made Milwaukee famous
Before I had teeth

Hot fudge sundaes with Crème de menthe
Apple wine with dinner
Whisky in cars with boys
Liquid courage
Sometimes it’s easier to quit than moderate

Moderation is great if it works for you. It was no fun for me. Who wants to eat just one potato chip?! Here’s more on why I quit drinking and never looked back.

Thanks to Jonica Bradley for this thrifty word challenge.

I like writing for The Bad Influence because…

I was dusting the bookcase the other day, not because I’m a clean freak but because I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I don’t know where all that dust comes from.

I bet Ernest Hemingway never dusted a day in his life. I might be a great writer if I wasn’t wasting so much time on housework. Maybe.

I tried making it into a game. “Okay, you’re a castaway on a desert island with only three books. What are they?”

While I hope it never happens, these are three books I would be glad to be stranded with.

1. The Library Book by Susan Orlean

ESSAY CONTEST

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
Martin Luther King Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail, April 16, 1963.

But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, and he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard. — Sojourner Truth

1. What can a Karen say about racism in feminism? Nothing-
   but that never stopped me before.
2. “Man, where is your part?” asks Sojourner Truth.
   “Women’s rights are human…

Last year, while wandering aimlessly on Facebook looking at photos of cats and babies, keeping up with my old high school pals, and arguing about politics, I stumbled upon a writer who became my sherpa guide and led me out of the dark abyss into the world of Medium success.

When Roz Warren posted that she’d written a book called Our Bodies, Our Shelves: A Collection of Library Humor, I ordered it immediately. I love libraries and gobbled this book up like a candy bar disguised as an energy bar. …

Me mum was the age that I am now, the day she stood on the banks of the river Thames, shivering and holding her baby brother James in her arms. The bodies of their parents lay beside her on the ground.

“There was a flurry of rescuers, onlookers, and scavengers after the ferry went down. A lady in a white hat took James and told me sternly to wait right there until the warden from the orphan asylum could come for me.”

Me mum told me the story when I was old enough to understand the day her life changed…