Rosa > Recent Status Updates

"No, actually, I know exactly what you mean.
Everyone says, Let's have a baby. No one says, Let's spend the rest of our lives creating a fully functioning human being."
"You could have told me that before," I said.
"We all have to keep it a secret so we'll have com-pany. We don't want to scare you off." -page 332

"Oh please. My friends. My boyfriends. My college major. My job, my apartment. Judgment is your job, not mine.
"Penelope, you and your father are the worst kinds of judges. You judge with a smile." -page 321

"Didn't what? Love you? Of course I did. Of course I have. But you made it so hard—judging me constantly, talking about how Jennifer's mother went on the field trip and Jessica's mother made her birthday cake and all the things you resented about me because I made a life for myself. You and your father and your constant judgment." -page 321

"Goddamn, Polly, she didn't tell you? I'm sorry, pardon my French, as Sarah would say. She didn't tell you? This place is yours. She deeded it to you months ago."
"What?"
"And all its contents. That's what the documents say."
"You can't just give somebody a house."

See: The Bucket List by Rachel Hanna

My candle burns at both ends, It will not last the night,
But oh my foes, and oh my friends, It casts a lovely light.

"First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

And those DNA tests, I mean, who gives a damn. You look at those animals out there, and if you tested them theyd be related to each other all over the place, and they have no clue. It's all just seed and egg.

But humans aren’t animals.

Sure we are. -page 294

«Then how come a DNA test thinks Talia and I are related, that she's my niece? The only way she could be my niece is if her father is my brother, and the only way Stephen could be my brother is if you're my father."
"Half," he said. "Half brother. -page 294

"The lowdown?"
"Whatever"
"Are you my father?" I said, and as I said it I couldn't believe it, couldn't believe it was true, couldn't believe I'd even said it.
"Jesus, of course I'm not your father. I've never even seen you before. I just met you for the first time. From what I recall, you have a perfectly fine father. -page 293

"Well, I don't know her now. I haven't seen her in, what, maybe forty years or so."
"I'm forty-three," I said.
"Yeah, I heard that from Barbie," he said.
"How do you know my mother?"
"Yeah, I think that's her story to tell. I told Barbie I wasn't sure this was a good idea, but that even so it was Mary who would have to give you the lowdown." -page 293

This (Andre Bettmen) is Talia’s grandfather. -page 292

"You look just like your mother." And I sat back down, hard.
"How do you know my mother." I said.
"Well, I don't know her now. I haven't seen her in, what, maybe forty years or so."
"I'm forty-three," I said.
"Yeah, I heard that from Barbie," he said.
"How do you know my mother?"
“Well, I don’t know her now. -page 293

The thing about family: Lots of times someone was doing something behind your back, for your own good, even when it didn't feel that way. -page 277

Emily Roebling

Emily's unsung role in the construction and completion of the Brooklyn Bridge. At the reception afterward one of the dads who was on the Landmarks Commission said quietly, "I think it's an overstatement to suggest that her husband just sat by while she handled the whole project. But I wouldn't dare say that here." A lot of the dads seemed overwhelmed by estrogen in the upper school, - page 264