Tag: markley

I recently attended the TedWomen conference, and I am so excited to tell you all about it.   First, you must understand, I am a conference junkie. I love the energy, the gatherings, the shared purpose of people wanting to learn, and I spend an embarrassing amount of time considering the...
My great-grandmother was born before women in the U.S. had the right to vote.  As soon as she was legally allowed to vote, she never missed an election. She’d walk from her two-family house on Exchange Place in Clifton and pull the lever for change and progress. Change was what...
I’m so excited to announce that I've been published as a contributing writer to Grown and Flown! Yup. Like a real life writer. I'm a wee bit excited. I was recently making a joke about some remedial parenting I needed to catch up on before my kids are off to...
A (slightly) shorter version of this was published in NJ Spotlight, an award-winning editorial website that delivers news and analysis about politics and public policy in New Jersey, on September 21, 2018. You can read it directly on their website here. If you're looking for the longer, fuller version,...
So last night I had the strangest dream. It was a combination of all my anxieties and stress about the end of summer and impending beginning of the new school year rolled up into one big mind mess. And it was kind of fun.  I am a vivid dreamer,...
I told my daughter I needed to write about gun violence. Know what she told me? “Mom, be sure you’re not too polarizing. People won’t listen.” She’s right. At age eleven she’s figured out that we adults need to be reminded how to speak to one another in order...
I met Jamie on the bus to the Women's March in DC in 2017. She lost her brother to gun violence over 20 years ago. She's been fighting this fight a long time. "A gun in the hands of a criminal with vengeance in his heart took my brother’s life...
I think technology has officially passed me up. I was thinking about The Jetsons the other day, and the episode when Mrs. Jetson was overwhelmed from the machines and gadgets that were supposed to simplify her life. I understand Jane so much better now, as I throw in the...
I’m not usually a Bah Humbug kind of girl, but this year I’m in a bit of a funk. Maybe it’s a year of politics that has me wishing for a third party. Or no party. Maybe it’s a year of “#metoo” and realizing that I think life is more like...
I miss the days when I could just sink money into the most adorable Disney Princess Halloween costumes possible. Katie has been Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Anna from Frozen, Sleeping Beauty (which at the time was before Katie perfected her speech articulation and she called her Cheapy Booty...