Fresh off a weekend with 11 dear friends, I am exhausted and my voice is still raw, but my soul is rejuvenated replenished.

Woven in among the glasses of wine and cocktails, the reading of US Weekly, the dancing and attempts at twerking, the eating and the far too many discussions about poop, there was also life at its grittiest.

We talked of relationships with spouses, friends, children and parents; of changing identities; of careers and lack thereof; of dreams left to be realized; of growing older and of growing wiser.

Not a single topic was left unturned, unanalyzed (some ...

A brewery tour seems like an odd place to tear up. Yet that’s exactly what happened to me last weekend.

There I was with my husband and friends learning about the history of Pabst Brewing Company, and suddenly I could barely suppress the waterworks.

Don’t get me wrong, the inspiring story has some bittersweet chapters to it. Pabst was once the largest brewing company in the world. It closed its doors abruptly in 1996, shocking "Brew City." I still remember the news coverage. And I remember touring the fully functioning brewery with my family 30 some years ago ...

I don’t like young yoga instructors. And it’s not because they can twist their lithe bodies into pretzels while I will never get into crow (I swear it's an abnormal torso to arm length ratio and not a fear of falling on my face).

Youthful yoga instructors annoy me because when I’m juggling a full-time job, a child, a marriage, a cross country move and expanding age spots on my face, I have a really hard time relating to a 20-something whose biggest challenge is to finish all her term papers by the end of the ...

I love my husband and daughter dearly, but sometimes the sights and sounds of them make me want to scream. I realized why yesterday: I am an introvert often forced to live as an extrovert.

Sure, I can be a chatty Cathy with the best of them and even people who know me well would probably classify me as outgoing, but when push comes to shove, I’d rather curl up with a good book than do anything else in the world.

So yesterday, as I felt the weekend slipping through my fingertips and I began thinking of the busy ...

Anybody else out there singing “Manic Monday” this morning? (Admit it, The Bangles rocked). I wouldn’t classify today as a manic Monday. I’m the usual tired and not quite ready to head back to work, but in terms of Mondays, this one is a pussycat. And yet, as I was blow drying my hair, out of nowhere came this blast from the past.

As soon as the song popped into my head, my mind journeyed back to sixth grade and Mrs. Tonn’s English class where I’m doing an end-of-year air band with Amy P., whom I ...