This is an abridged version of an essay I wrote. The other stories that were in the original essay (which is actually a better essay in pieces, I think!) are Dreamy Weird Thing, A Weird Thing, and A Novel Weird Thing. By BetsyG My seven-year-old son, already past believing in the tooth fairy and becoming distrustful of the stories adults tell children, asked me if I believe in Santa Claus. I was stuck for an answer. Being Jewish, we don’t celebrate Christmas so it wouldn’t destroy... Read Full Story

By BetsyG I have a few minutes while I wait for a co-worker to get online so I can get the information I need from him to do my next task, so I thought I’d write a quick note about a movie I saw last week. I understand most people don’t flock to theaters to see documentaries, but I quite like them. So when my high school classmate Mary Mazzio announced that her new documentary, Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon would be opening in Boston this past weekend, I made plans to go. Here... Read Full Story

By BetsyG A few years ago, I was pitching ideas for the Coupling column in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine, and one of them was about what my kids are looking for in a guy for me. That was long enough ago that when I think about what that column was going to look like then and what it would look like now, it gives me a sense of the way my kids have grown up—and how very long it’s been that I’ve been single. It’s closing in on ten years since my marriage broke up. My kids we... Read Full Story

By BetsyG A few years ago, I was pitching ideas for the Coupling column in the Boston Globe Sunday magazine, and one of them was about what my kids are looking for in a guy for me. That was long enough ago that when I think about what that column was going to look like then and what it would look like now, it gives me a sense of the way my kids have grown up—and how very long it’s been that I’ve been single. It’s closing in on ten years since my marriage broke up. My kids we... Read Full Story

By BetsyG An old boyfriend wanted to friend me on Facebook. I sometimes get invites I don’t want to accept, and I usually do accept them unless I don’t really know the person. I don’t want strangers reading about me, looking at my pictures, reading my friends’ comments, etc. There are ways to deal with that, though, through privacy settings. Or, you can also simply unfriend the person after a decent amount of time passes. Ex-boyfriends, unless you’ve maintained a... Read Full Story

By BetsyG An old boyfriend wanted to friend me on Facebook. I sometimes get invites I don’t want to accept, and I usually do accept them unless I don’t really know the person. I don’t want strangers reading about me, looking at my pictures, reading my friends’ comments, etc. There are ways to deal with that, though, through privacy settings. Or, you can also simply unfriend the person after a decent amount of time passes. Ex-boyfriends, unless you’ve maintained a... Read Full Story

Sorry for not posting in so long. I know some have given up on me, and rightly so. I can’t fully explain why I’ve fallen off. I am busy, but it’s mostly because this isn’t where my head is at. I don’t know where my head is at—all I can say is it’s apparently not in a writing place. Unfortunately, I can’t tell my head what to do most of the time. If only I could. But here’s a little something just to show I’m still alive. By BetsyG One of t... Read Full Story

Sorry for not posting in so long. I know some have given up on me, and rightly so. I can’t fully explain why I’ve fallen off. I am busy, but it’s mostly because this isn’t where my head is at. I don’t know where my head is at—all I can say is it’s apparently not in a writing place. Unfortunately, I can’t tell my head what to do most of the time. If only I could. But here’s a little something just to show I’m still alive. By BetsyG One of t... Read Full Story

By BetsyG The other night, I saw the movie (500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Apart from feeling a little icky for finding Gordon-Levitt so attractive (child stars do grow up, I guess), I quite liked the film for a variety of reasons. Primarily I enjoyed it based on the appeal of the leads, but I also liked its message, one I am trying hard to heed, without success, as you might expect if you know me at all. I’m afraid there’s a spoiler here, but the spoi... Read Full Story

By BetsyG This weekend, I saw my brother-in-law, a regular reader of The BetsyG-Spot, and he asked why I was slacking and where my posts were. Good question. It was with some trepidation that I finally looked at my stats today and saw the sad result of not having posted anything for a few weeks. Slacking indeed. To tell you the truth, apart from lacking romantic inspiration (see my last several posts), I haven’t had a break from working/writing in a long time. I did have a fabulous vaca... Read Full Story