Category Archives: Random Stories

A Non-Exact Biography of My Breasts

Posted on October 11, 2020 by advicefrommarta

Childhood I am six, or maybe seven. We move to a new house and the house next door is a perfect match for ours, right down to the two girls the same age as my sister and I. The main … Continue reading →

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Remembering Names

Posted on September 14, 2020 by advicefrommarta

If you are in your 50s in the age of Facebook you can probably sort the names of people you went to high school with into four categories. There are your friends, the ones you still talk to and know, … Continue reading →

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Sunday Morning Photos

Posted on September 7, 2020 by advicefrommarta

When he’s bored with his own phone, my 14-year-old son likes to pick up my phone and go through the photos. My phone is 5 years old, so over a third of his life is stored in it. “You take … Continue reading →

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Across the Aisle

Posted on October 22, 2019 by advicefrommarta

On Sunday, my husband, teenage daughter and I took the El downtown to the ballet. When we got on a friend I don’t see often was unexpectedly on board and I was excited to chat with her. A few stops … Continue reading →

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Time Travel

Posted on September 26, 2019 by advicefrommarta

To help with a recent surgery I have been taking a water aerobics class. I go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I am the youngest, by a lot. Most of the people in the class know each other. Some go … Continue reading →

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The Labyrinth

Posted on August 30, 2019 by advicefrommarta

There’s a house I’ve walked by for years. It’s a comfortable house, a little ramshackle, it could use a fresh coat of paint. I’ve been inside and the same is true there, too. Years ago when I pushed a double-wide … Continue reading →

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The When Wes

Posted on January 6, 2019 by advicefrommarta

Today, driving through Chicago and past places I used to work and now barely recognize, I started thinking about the “When Wes.” The year I turned 16 I lived in Malawi. I went to an international boarding school. Most of … Continue reading →

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Yelling in the Agora

Posted on September 16, 2018 by advicefrommarta

              Last night I slept with the windows open and this morning around 7:30 I was woken up by a man yelling on the sidewalk. He eventually moved into the middle of the busy … Continue reading →

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My Horror Movie

Posted on August 6, 2018 by advicefrommarta

My husband’s family has a cabin deep in the woods of Northern Michigan. So deep in the woods that the first time he took me and turned from a dirt road into a random, unmarked clump of trees and up … Continue reading →

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El Car Pietá

Posted on June 13, 2018 by advicefrommarta

I am on the el in the middle of the afternoon. At the end of the almost empty car, in the part that’s slightly separated, and so perfect for sleeping, is an older African-American man. He is standing up and … Continue reading →

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