Ayelet Waldman, my nemesis

Back when I had a terrible office job (another post), I used to read a lot on the internet. A lot. I would start every morning with my favorite online magazines, including Slate and Salon.com. In around 2005, Salon hired a new editor, who in turn hired a writer named Ayelet Waldman to write a weekly column about "Life," an idiotically named catch-all section of the website dedicated to things that relate to culture, family, women's issues and so on.

Ayelet Waldman is a mystery writer who is married to Michael Chabon (who a lot of people apparently mistakenly believe is gay). According to her articles, she writes these mommy mysteries and is obsessed with her husband, has like three or four kids and a complicated relationship with her anti-depressant medication. Now, I am as crazy as the next person, so far be it for me to judge this woman who has a ton of kids and an intense career and a husband who is extremely successful.

But Ayelet Waldman is ridiculous. She is completely ridiculous. She writes these articles about how she loves her husband more than her kids, how she wants her son to be gay, how she can't decide if she should go off her medication while she is pregnant with her baby. Honestly, all topics that could be treated well by someone with a lightly less tweaked vision of our world. But Ayelet just shanks it. Completely and utterly.

So every Monday, I would show up at mu horrible job, and I would eagerly await her insanity to be posted on Salon. God, it was amazing. Without fail, I would be so desperately offended by her lunacy, her selfishness, he utter encapsulation of what a Midwestern friend of mine calls "that Berkely upper-class mom thing" that was one of the reasons I had ostensible moved to Chicago so many years ago from the Bay Area. She made me feel bad for being a lady, feel bad for being from the Bay Area. But mainly she made me feel bad for her kids. And weirdly, for Michael Chabon.

She is my nemesis. There is nothing more I can say about it. Her columns were taken off Salon because they caused such a furor among the elitist feminist set of readers who would stop buying Dagoba chocolates advertised on the Salon website. She continues to write. I am sure she loves Obama. She is still my nemesis.

Check out her website! Seriously, it's amazing.
http://www.ayeletwaldman.com/