Author Alexandra Retana blogs about her book, medicine, kids, life, and whatever else comes to mind
This weekend, my family and I took a mini-vacation to New Hampshire. It's not our usual bag; we tend to go more for the ocean/beach type and less for the hike/mountain type, but we'd already been down the Cape once this summer, and with activities limited due to The Plague COVID, all we've been doing is going to the beach by our house every weekend, so we felt like a change of scenery was in order.
I'm starting to think maybe I'm allergic to the hospital. Every time I go there, weird shit starts happening to my body, and before anyone says it, no, it's not COVID. But, like, I start feeling pains everywhere; I can't seem to get enough rest; my frequency of headaches goes up exponentially. Monday was just … Continue reading The book is published!
I have always been wordy, and writing in a diary has proved therapeutic, educational, and extremely useful. As such, I have decided to share a modified excerpt from the book on how I got started writing, and please don't thank me. Hint: It wasn't to make money.
Actually, I did two things. I wrote a book and I joined Tiktok. Did you know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a medical doctor? Yes, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, and completed his thesis on tabes dorsalis. He then set up a medical practice, but it was unsuccessful, so he started writing … Continue reading I did a thing
DISCLAIMER: I love America and it's the best country in the world. So, I just came back from a vacation in Spain. And by vacation I mean an incredibly intense, sight-seeing, experience-acquiring, sensory-overloading, physically challenging... experience (and not without some emotional taxation, but that's a whole different story). It made me wish I was a … Continue reading 7 Lifestyle features that make Spain different
"Will you promise me something?" I said to my daughter. "When you're big, will you remember this moment?" We were lying on the couch on the porch, as part of our whole "blissful afternoon" enterprise. My husband was putzing around the grill, my son was drawing something and humming to himself, and my daughter and … Continue reading Eau de Baby Feels
This summer, I decided that I missed my kids and wanted to spend more time with them, so I bit the bullet and gave the nanny the summer off, dramatically cut my hours (flinching as I await blowback from my partners), and decided that I would be the one spending blissful summer afternoons eating strawberries … Continue reading Shut Up About Eighteen Sweet Summers
Now, I think beets are good. Tasty root vegetable, sweet, crunchy, happily colored. Around here people are put off by them because they're pink. And when I used to bring borscht, the traditional Eastern European beet soup, for lunch, invariably, there would someone who'd look in my tupperware, and go, "Ewww, that's pink, what is that?" What … Continue reading Unprecedented recipe post
'Tis the season. The season to assert my Jewishness, like, hard. Christmas season. Okay, let me correct that. I don't actually need to assert my Jewishness per se because I am Jewish AF as far as ethnic identities go, but it's my kids. Take the Catholic spouse and add to that NOT living in Brookline, MA where … Continue reading Tis the season for identity crisis: the Elf dilemma
Have I ever told you how I rescued a bird in my driveway, thereby sacrificing a gorgeous beach day with my family? We get all packed up, and roll the car out to the driveway to put the kayaks on the roof. And suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see a moving … Continue reading I rescue a bird: how to become a true good samaritan
And Why Not! 