Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Behind the Leopard Print Curtain: A Sneak Peak at My Food and Wine Classic Experience. Day 35 of 100 Days of Writing

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We returned from Aspen three days ago. My head is still whirling, both from the experience and the rather brusque re-entry to my primary role as Getter of Things Mama.

I’ve spent many sumptuous moments processing this five-day vacation, jotting down notes, trying to put words to feelings and tastes and exhalations.  Very soon it became clear that trying to write about vacation means you need to frame the essay. Which lens worked best for these disparate moments very loosely bound by food?
Here’s a taste…yes, sorry. I’ll try to avoid food puns as I roll this series out over the next few days:

What story to tell? It’s not of food or of celebrity or of travel. It never is. Travelogues and tales of safari and trekking, sailing and soaring are always the backdrop of stories of the Self. After flipping through various lenses through which to tell my little story like some sort of literary phoropter checking to see if each new angle was better or worse, it soon became clear.  Reduce the story to the common denominator.  This is a story of Love. They all are, really.