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  My son Alex is 11 years old. He has no friends.   He has never had any friends.  Well, he has his older brother, and his older brother’s friends have often been kind and sometimes even inclusive when they were all young enough to still have some reasonably overlapping interests and abilities. But as the developmental age gaps widened mercilessly. And we had to leave our home in NYC, which meant losing proximity to our tribe- who had embraced and included Alex from the time of his infancy. And so, Alex is left behind. Alex is left out. Alex is left alone.  With me.  His only friend.  And in a lot of ways, I don’t count. Because I’m a 45 year old woman. And because I’m his mother. And I’m simply not a satisfactory sole playmate for any child. Ask any 11 year old, and they will tell you that this is true.  My son Alex is 11 years old. He has down syndrome. He has no friends.  I do not believe that he has no friends simply because he has down syndrome.  But it certainly d

Final cover letter submitted today. Thank you for your feedback, writing women -- it was vital. Please send good mojo!  Dear ___________, Re: Director of Design Thought Leadership role   I am familiar with your organization through my work as a board member of the Center for Design Institute where we advance the brilliant legacy of industrial design pioneer, Sara Little Turnbull. My last in-person cultural experience, a little over a year ago in Portland, was attending your impressive “Design is Everywhere” exhibit which included Sara. Afterwards, I got on a plane at PDX and returned to NYC and the world shut down. Attached, please find my materials in response to your listing for the above position at Design Museum Everywhere. I offer a unique background that is remarkably aligned with your search for this non-traditional role of design vision and community engagement.   As you seek an experienced and passionate community manager-meets-facilitator-meets-distinguished-design-thinker ,

THE GLARING           We all have boys’ names.  I think that’s the primary reason we became friends.  Sam, Chris, and Andi.  Andi with an “i,” but still--Andi.  Sam, Chris and Andi, inseparable from the age of six.  We cycled through a lot of names for our threesome over the last seven years.  They ranged from the obvious—The Three Musketeers, to the only slightly less obvious—The Three Amigos.  My favorite was the Charlie’s Angels.        We’re one blonde, one brunette, and one redhead, which honestly, is how I think the original Charlie’s Angels should have been.  I’m the redhead but I totally wanted to be Sabrina.  In those old 1970s episodes my mom has on VHS, it’s so obvious Sabrina is the redhead of the group.  Andi’s the brunette, Kelly.  And of course, Chris is Jill, played by none other than everyone’s dream girl, Farah Fawcett.        About six months after we started calling ourselves Charlie's Angels, my dad told me that when he was in high school, he had a poster in hi