Last year, I completed my master’s degree in Creative Nonfiction, and chose to write my thesis about events surrounding the fire that destroyed our home and our neighborhood in 1991. I’ve covered it in previous posts here and in a number of published essays. This is one of the chapters from my thesis-that-I-hope-will-grow-up-to-be-a-book-someday. I’ve written … Continue Reading
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Threads Count
With many thanks to It Builds Character for publishing this post about Making Big Decisions based on thread count. I’m always happy to be a guest at IBC, where I receive a very warm welcome. See what I mean: by reading it here. (Complete with kind introduction by the great Chimomwriter herself.)
Stranded…
…on a desert island with only one album to listen to.You have to chose. Go ahead, I’ll wait. This was a class assignment during my last semester at Saint Mary’s: choose the one album you would take with you to a desert island, assuming you could plan ahead for this, and could also figure out… Continue Reading
The Rise and Fall of Ms. Fixit
As I pressed the button to open my garage door yesterday, I paused to notice the black smudges that still form a border on the inside of the door. And this is the story of how they got there. (Seen as a guest post on It Builds Character a few months ago. History buffs will… Continue Reading
Chopped Liver
As seen in Skirt! Magazine, November 2011 My parents had dragged me to a Bar Mitzvah in San Francisco — the kid was the son of a family friend and I was not given a choice about attending. As a sophisticate of seventeen, I had no interest whatsoever in being there. When the… Continue Reading
I Made It Myself!
My friend and fellow blogger over at Midlife Mixtape wrote a terrific post about the sorts of homemade gifts she and her siblings created for each other when they were growing up. I know what she means when she says that some of those made by hand gifts were treasured much more than store bought ones.… Continue Reading
A King Kong Christmas
In honor of the season, here is a piece I wrote a few years ago. This is the first year since the early days of our marriage we won’t have a tree at home. I know my husband will miss the tradition, so here they are–together again! Many people have lovely angel ornaments… Continue Reading
None of the Boring Bits
Walking around in Sydney last week, I saw one of those carts full of ice cream-on-a-stick options. One colorful poster advertising something within promised “none of the boring bits,” and I guess this is my way of describing what comes next on “Zero to Sixty in One Year.” Not ice cream on a stick. The… Continue Reading
Wax Angel
Mom at the mic, circa 1960 After my mother died in 2007, my sister and I tackled the job of clearing out her house, room by room. I thought the kitchen pantry would be pretty straightforward, so I opened the door and surveyed the shelves. My mother’s pantry: stockpiled with “just in case” supplies left… Continue Reading
A Touch of Gray
It says right there on my California driver’s license—Hair: GRY. I must have changed it when I renewed my license over ten years ago. That would be about right. The year was 2000. I’d grown weary of the increasingly frequent trips to the hair salon to fight the rising tide of gray hair. By then… Continue Reading