Jane Brendlinger

My stomach and I aren’t always on the best terms. Over the years, we’ve bickered a lot. Sometimes she’s like, “Dude, why do you keep putting jelly beans inside of me? I can’t do anything with this sh*t.” Me: “Bwahaha!” [keeps eating jelly beans].…

Confidence: a slippery fish, a flaky, fair-weather friend, and as soon as things get a little rough it’s, “Sayonara, I didn’t sign up for all of these stupid problems,” and Confidence is out the door. Confidence most recently slipped through my…

One night in August, something small was pricking at my ankles. I reached down to scratch, and found that constellations of small raised bumps had surfaced overnight. Another quick sting, and a fleck of black pepper jumped from my ankle into the…

When I first moved to New York City, I was fascinated by the intersecting subway lines, the striking difference between the percussive rhythm of Chinatown, and the calm in the middle of a field of Prospect Park. I loved the fact that nothing ever…

Editor's Note: This napping experiment was done in good fun, but what's not funny is that some people really don't have a private place to sleep — and that's no joke to us. Do your part to fight homelessness in New York City or in your town. Because…

January 2015 was 31 days, and I know because I was been counting them down, one by one. Two weeks left, then one, then none. Finally, after a dark and hopeless 4.43 weeks, I hold a drink in my hand. Yes, that's right: I tried Dry January. Before…

I'm not a religious person, but sometimes I wish I were. Just to have that feeling of being watched over, of knowing that some forces other than reigning chaos and Google analytics are determining my life's course. Isn't there something else I can…

Last fall, a dear friend of mine approached me to ask for an unusual favor. “I’m looking to get a new tattoo,” she said, “and I want you to design it.” I was both flattered and confused. You see, I’m not a professional artist, and not even an…

For decades, throughout the halls of American colleges everywhere, men and women have been joining forces in the name of one absurd and futile pursuit: to create facsimiles of popular songs by pretending to be instruments. The word “a cappella” did…

This journey begins with an embarrassing confession: at the mature age 23, I got a cavity. Because of my carefree adult lifestyle, I hadn’t been to the dentist in over two years. Maybe it was the distance between dental appointments, maybe it was…

It’s Christmas. Sh*t. Where on earth has this year gone? I’ve done a great job of buying presents for myself, some important investment pieces like an espresso machine and a new bra. But the true meaning of Christmas lies in spending money on other…

It takes a special kind of person to go to a hot yoga class. First and foremost, you have to like heat, obviously. Specifically, the kind of heat that feels like you’re breathing steamed milk into your lungs. You have to like sweat — the taste of…

I’ve always been big on New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps I’ve bought into the American narrative of self-reinvention, but there’s something in the blank slate of an untouched year that says to me, “Let’s not repeat last year, cool?” I went hog wild…

When I was seven, I went on the Jack the Ripper tour with my family in London. I think my parents thought I wouldn’t pay attention, but I’d say I was pretty rapt the whole time, touring those dingy London streets while hearing about the gruesome…

Great news. Your best friend just got a boyfriend! Good for her, really. It’s so hard to meet people these days. I mean, good people. They met on OkCupid — love in the modern age, am I right? This is all playing out like an updated version of You’ve…