The counties to the north–Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino–are still on fire as I write this. Some people, unable to go back to check, still don’t know for sure if they have homes anymore. All those affected by these raging fires have been on my mind over the past few days. Living in the Bay Area,… Continue Reading
Author Archives: Risa Nye
Good Morning, Little School Girl
In honor of the first week of school, three little school girls! First, my Kindergarten picture: And here’s my daughter on her first day. And this one, on her first day of kindergarten (no more current pictures allowed… Continue Reading
The House I Live In (That’s America To Me)
It’s the name of a song. I heard Frank Sinatra sing this song twice in two days recently. Because of the disturbing events of the last few days and months, it made me think. What was the story behind this song? And why did it become identified with Sinatra? I was curious about who wrote… Continue Reading
I Was Here
Several years ago, I wrote articles about the craft of writing for Hippocampus Magazine. This is one of them, which came to mind this morning as I was reading a book about writing. I sometimes wonder, as I’m reading, why a writer has chosen to highlight a particular incident in an essay or a memoir.… Continue Reading
Put on a Happy Face: A Healing Update
It’s been a while since the last update, and in this case no news is good news. There are still the little things that only I notice, but the bigger issues seem to have resolved pretty well. I need to steer around foods that are crunchy (so long tortilla chips and cookies), foods that require… Continue Reading
Card-Carrying Grandmother
First, a little background. My Grandma Eve was my Grampa Mike’s second wife. His first wife, my dad’s beloved mother, passed away before any of us grandchildren got to meet her. So Grandma Eve was the grandmother we knew growing up. If I have the story straight, my grandfather engaged the services of a matchmaker,… Continue Reading
A Few Words About a Neighbor
Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, has been in the news lately. The PBS News Hour shared writer Anthony Breznican’s touching memory of a difficult time in his life, when he meet Mr. Rogers in person. It was a sweet story, bringing back a memory of my own. Breznican’s story reminded me of when I was a… Continue Reading
I Still Miss Someone
It wasn’t easy to find a good picture of those blue eyes. This one has two pairs of blue eyes, and lots of love. Susie left us two years ago today. Still have a hard time believing it. I just heard this song for the first time a few nights ago, sung by Rosanne Cash,… Continue Reading
The Boys are Back in Town!
I had not assigned a gender to my teeth prior to this post. For all I know, they are girly teeth–but the point is I got my new long-term temporary obturator today, and it includes facsimiles of my dearly departed molars. I’m sure it’ll take some time getting used to having teeth up there after… Continue Reading
One Fine Day
I don’t want to forget that this happened, finally. One fine day this week, I woke up and didn’t feel different, didn’t hurt anywhere, didn’t think about the strange new arrangement inside my mouth. I just woke up, opened my eyes, and thought about what I wanted to get done that day. It was the… Continue Reading