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About Kate Chen

Writing a memoir about writing a memoir while experiencing memory loss caused by multiple sclerosis. Graduate of GrubStreet's Memoir Generator and Memoir Incubator. Published in Momentum's humor section, National Multiple Sclerosis Magazine. Former Executive Directive, Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science; Director of Gifts and Grants, Harvard Sten Cell Institute; Communications Manager, Western Academy of Beijing. Vassar College, '90, Philosophy major I live in Allston, MA my old and spunky beagle-basset named Sunday.

Giraffes in trees

A baby giraffe was in a tree looking down headfirst with its leash wrapped around a branch. I coaxed it down and led it across the dirt road, stopping cars for it. It was a foreign type of giraffe, skinny with a neck like a snake; she crossed the road, slithering like a snake with her legs flat out to the side. There was space in a pen of pigs across the street with leaves to eat where I squeezed her in. An organization was getting animals out of trees and ready to be released into the wild, which was further up the dirt road.

Outloud

I was dreaming and saying something in my dream that I actually said outloud and woke myself up and able to realize what woke me. In one dream I said, “My daughter just graduated from college.” In the other, I said, “It will be okay.” And in a third, “Hello, Richard.”

These all occurred within two weeks and I have never done this before.