and there's something about having an especially different name that makes it difficult to imagine what you would be like as a Jennifer.

I like to try to do a little work before I do anything in the morning, even if it's a paragraph.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who know where their high school yearbook is and those who do not.

Suburbia is too close to the country to have anything real to do and too close to the city to admit you have nothing real to do.

Alaska is what happens when Willy Wonka and the witch from Hansel and Gretel elope, buy a place together upstate, renounce their sweet teeth, and turn into health fanatics.

Friendship is a Spackle in itself. You'll forgive your friends a lot, and if you're a woman, you'll forgive your straight male friends even more. They represent the possibility of mutual toleration between the sexes, a keyhole into the mind of the Other, and the promise of one day meeting someone just like them except that you want to sleep with them.

A pet store is a celebration of dogs' existence and an explosion of options. About cats, a pet store seems to say, 'Here, we couldn't think of anything else.' Cats are the Hanukkah of the animal world in this way. They are feted quietly and happily by a minority, but there's only so much hoopla applicable to them.