It was more than just a cake; it was an architectural marvel.  Read More

There I am, waiting for my shampoo to begin, when my sister emerges from behind the curtain at the back of the salon. Read More

He was my first crush. Cubby O’Brian played the drums on The Mickey Mouse Club. Much to my dismay, he was always paired up with Karen*, who had pretty blonde curls. I didn’t look anything like this: Not me. No way. When I saw an  article in the SF Chronicle about the Disney Family Museum,… Read More

Or, more accurately: Time captured in a batch of letters. After my mother passed away in 2007, my sister and I found a stash of letters tucked away in my mom’s old cedar hope chest, along with some of what we assumed was her honeymoon lingerie. What a find! I’d forgotten about the letters, but… Read More

While I enjoyed talking about eight days of presents, what I didn't talk about was how many of my gifts were practical things, like, oh, socks, for example. Read More

Once we were six, and now we are five. First cousins.  We lined up like this: my sister, the oldest; the only boy; two of us born a few months apart; the middle of three sisters; and the baby. We posed for pictures together from the time we were toddlers. In the beginning, there were… Read More

When I was an adult, I found a little blue booklet with a few pages of notes written by my mother. She had filled in my name, my date of birth, weight, doctor's name, and a list of which shots I was given and when, with a reference to how much and what kind of formula I was fed. End of story. Read More

Those eyes, the black turtlenecks, the bon mots and literary references...Ilya was smart and sexy and mysterious. Read More

The Children's Room became my domain. This is where I first started reading about Beezus and Ramona, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Amelia Earhart, Emma Lazarus,The All-of-a-Kind Family, Charlotte, Nancy Drew, and the magic stories of Edward Eager. Read More

Throughout my childhood, Grampa Mike was always there : birthdays, holidays, ordinary days...and he used to show up with a flat of eggs and maybe some roses that were a little past their prime. Read More