Audacious Freedom

As bars and restaurants are beginning to open fully as COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted and people are getting vaccinated, I realized how much I missed just walking into a bar and ordering drinks and a meal. By myself. In this episode, I share some of my favorite moments belling up to bars in NYC and day-drinking.

I have been doing a lot of energy work and meditating this year, tapping into the presence of some of my family who have passed on. Tune in to hear the stories of my relatives who have inspired me with their audacity and freedom and how I continue to feel their love and support today.

The sudden loss of my precious pug, Cookie, at only 4 years old, left me in horrible pain. She had been my travel companion all over the country and she had filled a hole in my life after a sudden divorce. In this episode, I share my stories about devastating loss and the shifts I made in my life and work that brought me to a brand new chapter in my life as a mother to my baby girl.

Here’s a riddle for you: A woman has been divorced for 21 years. She has an 11-year-old daughter. Who is the daughter’s father? Tune into this episode for the answer to this riddle - the story about my daughter and me. And it’s clearly not as the old nursery rhyme goes: “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.” Hah!

In this episode, I reflect on how I have dressed up at different times in my life to get the attention from men, going all the way back to high school. Over the years, I’ve had to find my own unique style and at 55, I’ve settled into my naturally short, curly, gray hair, staying fit and *feeling sexy* for myself in comfortable outfits.

What does fashion have to do with firearms and safety training? Tune in to this episode to hear how learning how to dress for a new business-casual work environment led me to a 4-hour safety and firearms class, and a permit to Carry a Concealed Handgun, all before I ever held let alone fired a gun. My experience afterwards at the range left me uneasy.

On June 17th, 2021 President Joe Biden signed a law making Juneteenth a federal holiday. I chose to use this *day off* as a day to further educate myself and reflect on the history of Juneteenth. In this episode, I share my reactions to re-watching Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th and to Patrisse Khan-Cullor’s book, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir”.

One year to the day after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, I reflect on the past year’s police reform, including banning chokeholds like the one place on George Floyd. And on the goal of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as well as on the day’s social media posts on this one year anniversary, by Wanda Sykes, Emmanuel Acho, Kerry Washington and Ibram X. Kendi

On what would have been my 31st wedding anniversary, I reflect back on my doomed marriage. It’s been over 20 years since the split and yet I still have so many thoughts and stories to share about what was so bad on the inside of a marriage that looked *good* on the outside.

In this episode, I react to Celeste Ng’s 2017 novel and New York Times Best Seller, “Little Fires Everywhere”. It also became a Hulu Original Series in 2020 starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. I share my reactions to some very hard topics: racism, classism, motherhood, entitlement and mental health stigmas.