Writing With Abandon

Reflections and ramblings about life as an educator, writer, reader, knitter, and over-thinker. Trying to do the writing only I can do.

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about

I’m Amy. A born and raised New Yorker, currently living in Miami. Here to reflect on my experiences as an educator and learner, working things out as I write.

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  • Stretching with Phoebe

    I roll out my yoga mat and begin to reach skyward, leaning to one side as I stretch my arm overhead. I fold down, bending my knees and rolling back up slowly, vertebrate by vertebrate. When I stretch up a second time, I hear the pitter patter of her paws, the sound dampening as I…

  • The TikTok House, Advent Adventure, and Wave-Crashing Escape

    I have very vivid dreams. Very strange dreams, yet very vivid. “Last night I dreamt that we went to visit an apartment in Amsterdam that had two huge labrador retrievers, and there was this whole other side with an indoor balcony and a pool and arcade games! Oh, and it was also attached to a…

  • 6 Minutes

    Another morning of me lying in bed, heavy with exhaustion, hugging a pillow to my chest. I wake up desperate to pee, go to the bathroom, come back, see Phoebe is in my spot. “Oh, no you don’t,” I say, lifting her up and placing her back in her bed beneath the night stand. I…

  • Collapsed Distance

    “Reading this makes me want to stop using my phone,” sighs A, “but then I don’t know, because my phone is so fun!” We’re reading an excerpt from the end of Kelly Yang’s book Finally Heard: “Essential Research on Social Media and Kids.” We finished watching Yang’s hilarious and informative video yesterday, and are adding…

  • Commercials

    I never watch commercials anymore, as I haven’t had cable TV since moving out of my parents’ house. Only at doctor’s offices, like my dentist, playing episodes of Friends while the hygienist cleans my teeth, or like now, this tiny waiting room at the hospital while I wait for my annual physical and they have…

  • On Limited Time and Never-Ending To Do Lists

    I got off the phone with Kim and stepped into the kitchen. The oven was on. “I thought you were going to eat with me,” I said. “Sorry, love, I didn’t know how long you’d be on the phone,” Patrick replied sheepishly. “No, it’s okay,” I said, looking at the clock. 12:55. I swiped on…

  • Bilateral Beach

    For someone who has lived in the Sunshine State for almost 4 years, I don’t go to the beach nearly as much as one might expect. Nor to the pool, even though each of the three buildings I’ve lived in since moving here has one. But every other Saturday since late October, I’ve been driving…

  • On Doing the Writing Only I Can Do

    I crack open the notebook I used for the Quoddy Writing Retreat this past August, led by Ralph Fletcher and Georgia Heard. The notebook I haven’t touched since landing back in Miami, even though I made promises — to myself, to my writing group — to set aside time to write. My streak of Tuesdays…

  • Test post for KLA slicers

    Practice commenting your post hyperlink below.

  • A Conversation Poem

    My sister sent me a few of my nephew’s poems this afternoon. He’s doing the 2nd grade poetry unit at school. I absolutely love this “conversation poem” about making a “caseadias” (quesadillas 🥹): What could I write a conversation poem about? The gossip in my classroom (students are dating, people!!!)? Going to the Apple store…