Eliana Osborn

Look, Connect Four is not a good game. But it can be over quickly, which is pretty great.

How do you love someone who continually does things to hurt himself? I’ve been holding a phone with my stoned, sobbing brother on the other end for nearly 20 years. I keep picking up the pieces, keep having my heart break, because he’s my brother.

The most important things my mother taught me included work from Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Wham! and Whitney Houston.

We take weekend turns. He does vacations and summers. Literally. He takes them away. It is great.

When I’m staring at the wall trying to keep my cool when my 6-year-old is hysterical about the tiny bump on his finger, I attempt to channel some of the good parts.

Size, like age and salary and whatever else, is just a number. Pretending numbers don’t measure things isn’t helpful. I’m 38 years old: That isn’t good or bad, but it IS different from being 18 or 50.

I’m not there yet. But I need to be honest—I’m closer to 40 than any other multiple of five.

They were horrible.

Self-care is important. Massages are a good form of self-care. Too bad I keep thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner.

Now that I’m a mother, I’m much more sympathetic to a woman who just couldn’t take it anymore. Not saying I’d leave my kids in a parking lot and hope for the best . . . just saying that I can understand the impulse.