Suprise Me

In 1953 I would have been five. Gas was something like, 19.9 cents a gallon. It smelled good wafting in the window while the attendant washed the windows. The attendant I remember was giving a lecture into our Plymouth. My mom, a recent war bride from England sat beside my father. My little sister and I… Read More

I grew up in a three-story apartment building in Palo Alto, California – a rectangular concrete building that still stands at the corner of Grant Avenue and Ash Street. Today, that part of town is crammed full of chic restaurants and expensive condos, but in the 1960s and 70s it was just a little neighborhood, tucked into a… Read More

I keep stumbling over The edge of aging This wrinkled hand This creaking hinge This blank spot In the file cabinet That held the treasures And torments of a life A story That is still unfolding With a few missing Pieces   But relentless ticking And the sounding chimes Of a heedless clock A blur… Read More

I started cooking because I was hungry. In fact, I'm still hungry—all the time. Read More

I began this story on Monday, November 7. Here was my first paragraph: I am starting to write this the night before the election. The anxiety and suspense are palpable. Perhaps by the time I finish it, we will have elected our first woman President. I then wrote a few paragraphs about the political views of my… Read More

As the Covid pandemic gripped us in fear and sadness, working from home, I felt a growing need for cheerful, upbeat things. Read More

On March 10, 2008, I had my annual mammogram. Never a pleasant experience, but tolerable, and I dutifully went every year without giving it much thought. That year was different. A few days afterwards the imaging center called me and said they wanted to do another mammogram of my right breast, so on March 20… Read More

I grew up in Belleville, New Jersey (1960 population 35,005), in a house on Washington Avenue, the main street of town. Directly across the street was a movie theater, a Shell gas station, and a drugstore. The featured image is the drugstore, and you can see a little bit of the Shell sign on the lefthand… Read More

Mother and Child,  Mary Cassatt 1897 Going Back to Work I was working as a high school librarian,   with an easy 20 minute highway commute,  when I discovered  I was pregnant.   I happily applied for a maternity leave and told my principal I’d be leaving a week or two before my mid-March due… Read More

But for a long time, being an oblivious sort of person, I, um, sort of forgot about it. Read More