Today is my third wedding anniversary. I’ve been telling people all morning – the receptionist at my dentist office (who said, oh three years is still newlyweds!), the hygienist at my dentist office (who said, three of infinity!), the dentist at my dentist office (who said, congrats kids and did I tell you I did Johnny Depp’s teeth for the new Pirates movie?). The headline: …
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On Sunday night I hosted a No Boys Allowed edition of my storytelling series Sunday Night Sex Talks. I started Sex Talks almost six years ago. I had the idea because of a gathering I fell backward into during college (a gathering of conversation, not sex). I was looking for some way to get involved with the comedy community when I moved to LA, and …
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It took me almost eight months after I graduated college to get my first, official job. I moved from the halls of Boston College to my old bedroom in central Jersey and hit the Monster.com search hard. At the time my dad kept a roll top desk in a carpeted corner of the basement. I would wake up every morning, eat my Team Cheerios (now …
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Yesterday I went to a meeting run by an activist organization working on voter suppression issues. The group is a division of the Action Group Network launched by Beau Willimon, who created House of Cards. It is an impressive, motivated and organized group of friends and strangers tackling the very specific issue of affecting change in government by ensuring that all Americans eligible to vote can actually …
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This is the longest I’ve gone without publishing a blog post in…ever. I even delayed publishing this post for three days because I didn’t want to type that it’s been the longest I’ve gone without publishing a blog post in…ever. I like routine and ritual and commitment. I like being accountable and productive. This blip in the blog is the opposite of all that, and …
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I’ve been teaching workshops on how to be a blogger for the past three years. They’re four-week courses where we walk through everything from how to structure an effective headline to how to not care when some stranger tells you that your grammar sucks and you shouldn’t be a writer. In the very first class of every section, I make a big deal out of …
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I don’t know when the term self-love was invented, but I’m really psyched in happened in my heyday [heyday here being defined as old enough to understand it, young enough to accept it]. Conceptually I think self-love is mission critical – the mission being to have a happy, healthy life with as few enemies as possible. I am one of those people (read: millennials that moved to …
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I am stumped about what to write this morning because anything non political feels trivial, unimportant, like a waste of time and anything political feels exhausting, too hard, like it’s slowly frying my brain. Yesterday, I woke up for my morning write like I have every weekday for the past month, plus. I started this new routine on January 2nd – the first day …
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Yesterday I chatted with an aspiring writer/performer about how the hell she’s going to become a successful writer/performer. This motivated, passionate, go-getter went to my alma mater, Boston College (so very sorry Matt Ryan…). She found her way to me through my sister who was in her same a cappella group that has an alumni network she used to ask if anyone could help her …
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Yesterday I tried to decide not to be anxious. No. Sorry. If I said that to my therapist she would say, “Jessie, you know anxiety is the part of the human condition.” Yesterday I tried not to let my anxiety win the day. Without getting into it, I got some exciting but overwhelming news. This is good news, the kind people hear and say congratulations! …
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