Light
I signed on to the LA Times this weekend, and saw the weather was hot in my old hometown. High eighties, low nineties every day out, with Santa Anas expected. It made me nostalgic, because the year of Jake’s birth was quite similar. A long cool summer, with June gloom lasting well into August, followed by intense heat. I still remember the heat the day I went into the hospital to give birth, and the way the bright and seemingly unfiltered sun fell on the inside walls of my home’s living room and downstairs hallway, highlighting large swaths of space and leaving shadows in other spots all at the same time.
So when I found this story today, comparing Los Angeles weather in October of 2008 to that in October 1999, I felt … well, nostalgic. I’ve been thinking all weekend about the way the light fell in my house that day. It certainly distracted me from the numbing knowledge that I am now officially the mother of a tween.
Happy birthday Jake!
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
Read More...