Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng My rating: 3 of 5 stars Three stars means I liked this book. I didn’t *really* like it and I didn’t love it. I read it quickly and I looked forward to picking up where I left off. It was a more sophisticated soap opera of sorts, plenty of […]
Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: 13 Stories by Alice Munro My rating: 5 of 5 stars I hope this book sets the standard for all the other books I’m going to read this year. It was damn near perfect. This is the second book of Munro’s I’ve read and now I am a […]
I have a soundtrack to my life. You probably do too. Walking down the street with my headphones on gives purpose to the mundane and everyday. When I heard this song last summer, it sounded especially cinematic and made me think of those romantic build-up scenes in 80’s movies; running across campus in the rain, […]
A few months ago, it occurred to me that I’d been going out and drinking more than usual. “I’m just busy”, I thought. “I say yes to people too often.” And while that’s true, I was a bit too willing. Usually, I’m happiest when I’m being productive and earning my cocktails. (To be clear, I […]
I grew up in Chicagoland. That’s actually what they call it. And by it I mean the great sprawl of suburbs surrounding Chicago. It never occurred to me that “Chicagoland” might sound funny to outsiders until I moved away at 25. It sounds like an amusement park; one that features a 90’s themed Chicago Bulls […]
Remember when I started an advice column, gave some advice, and then stopped for months and months and months? Well, I’m not a quitter! (Yet…) Before I get back to questions, I want to dole out some totally unsolicited dating advice. Last week, I had lunch with one of my [single] friends, Maggie. We talked […]
Welcome to the FIRST EVER advice post on Sammon Says!!!! Thank you to “Spineless in Seattle” for writing! Here goes… Dear Kate/Sammon Says, I’ve always struggled with failure. And the fear of that failure has determined how I live much of my life. I’ve recently decided to make some changes – primarily by doing the whole “fake […]
I’m bad at a lot of things. When I consider all the things in the world one could be good at, I realize that I’m bad at most of them. Math? Bad Anything involving the words “systematic”, “analytic”, “linear”, or “logic”? Ugh, not even interested. Driving? Okayish, besides multiple speeding tickets (a decade ago) and […]
Ten years ago, my friend Nate got us a seasonal job handing out mints for a well-known gum company in Chicago. It paid $14 an hour, which was huge for a couple of lazy theater majors in 2006. Our task was simple: show up at a Chicago landmark at the scheduled time, receive your mints from the […]
One night, when I was 13 years old, I wished upon a falling star that Joe Vanderhoof and I would fall in love and get married. Joe Vanderhoof was a family friend of ours, three years my senior. We grew up together and then one day he morphed into a hot teen and I fell in […]
