ArcaMax

"How about 'The Wizard of Oz'?"

Too boring.

"How about a family of sugar skull skeletons?"

Too scary.

"We could all dress up as 'How to Train Your Dragon.'"

Not Halloween enough.

"Then how about we dress as candy corn?"

No! Then we'll be sad we can't eat us! Do we have to dress as a family?

My family...Read more

"Ooh, a bride! Look, Mama! She's so beautiful."

I turned around to see what my 3-year-old was talking about. We were shopping in Ross, so I expected that she was referring to a mannequin in a gorgeous dress rather than a real bride walking down the aisle. That is, unless she was completely lost -- or perhaps completely un-lost and, having ...Read more

I am American. I know where my grandparents were from, given that they either immigrated to America or were first-generation Americans. There is nothing exotic in my appearance to uncover, given that I'm most often referred to as having girl-next-door looks. Thus, the popular DNA tests never held much interest for me. What could I learn that I ...Read more

"My teacher says we need to protect the whistleblowers," my 7-year-old said.

These kids, I thought. They know everything.

My son talks about Donald Trump and politics casually with his friends the way I do with mine. It unnerves me. I grew up right outside of Washington, D.C., and I don't recall being this informed at his age.

"...Read more

"Do you know why they call it a superstition?" Mr. Patrick, my sixth-grade teacher, asked the class. He had just told us about an old friend who died a horrific death with welts and boils, rashes and coughs, fevers and hallucinations, after refusing to heed the warnings and entering an ancient pyramid. The doctors didn't know what was ...Read more

"It's... bright."

This is about the closest thing to a compliment that the new shutters on my house and the new color of the front door have received.

Colorblindness runs in my family. I am not colorblind. I have what I believe to be a mild hue-blindness. The color wheel doesn't have as many options for me as it may for you. Where you see ...Read more

The bulk of those in my high school group of friends are a year older than I am. Recently, our group text thread was a robust conversation about whether they should attend their 20-year high school reunion. They chatted about whom they would want to see and whom they desperately would not want to see. But most of their interests and anxieties ...Read more

We are buffet people -- at least my dad's side of the family. Having grown up with little money and seemingly never quite enough to eat, my dad considers buffets the only kind of dining experience that makes any real sense.

"Why spend $9 on one plate of food when you could go to a buffet and spend $7.99 on six plates of food?" my dad would ...Read more

Humble brag: I am very adept at burning bridges. I may have a little arsonist in me. Emotional arsonist, that is, not the Smokey Bear kind of arsonist.

That said, when I was about 13 years old and trying desperately to look cool, my mom sneaked into my bedroom and did a random search of my backpack. There she found a Caboodle -- because it ...Read more