The Family

I have a dear friend who won’t likely be with us on this side of the veil much longer. I feel immensely blessed that we have had him with us for at least two years longer than expected. There is boo-hooing to be done all too soon. He has been doing what I believe one should do […]

Arts and Crafts, the WWII Version

I’m not sure what’s to be gleaned from the observations I have about my grandfathers’ skill sets 40 and 50 years plus after they passed but while I was debating whether or not to polish a WWII necklace my father’s father made for my grandmother from old coins, it struck me how different this necklace […]

Let the Games Begin

When both my grandmothers, neither of who turned out to be with us in person much longer after this, were still alive we attended a family event together one last time. That is the fond part of this memory. One of my grandmothers, unsurprising in hindsight, was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. There was an inkling […]

Cake Straightener Cred

Families often have rituals and even vocabulary specific to their circle. Yesterday my husband came into the room to let me know he had “straightened the cake” as he was “concerned” it was just not acceptable to it leave as was. I was so proud of him. After 33 years of marriage, he finally became family officially. Cake […]

Why I Collect

I’m not sure what made me think about this recently, but I got to remembering these three girls in my high school a year ahead of me. Calling them girls is a stretch. They were already more mature than pretty much everybody else, even some teachers. This group sat in the library in the mornings and talked […]

The Hill I Refuse to Die On…

Quite a number of years ago I turned to my friend and said something to the effect of “I didn’t get the good hair.” She stopped, tipped her head and said, “Did you just hear what you said?” As an African-American woman, she just had no words. She certainly understands that the struggle with hair is real. So […]

Budweiser SUpernova

Having a class at 3 pm was something we all tried to avoid in college. It was a bewitching hour for the early partiers. Anything after 1 pm was a bummer. The quarter I had a 3 pm class was the quarter my friends would have Budweiser parties starting at 2 pm and watch Merv Griffin. To make my […]

IT WASN’T LIKE IN THE MOVIE…

I was watching the news covering the local teachers’ strike. The demands are less about pay and more about decent working conditions for teachers and students. Ridiculous that teachers feel the need to bargain for HVAC in ALL the public-school buildings. The city has been nickel and diming and basically ignoring so many of the physical buildings […]

An Absolutely True Story…really…I swear…

I love an urban legend. From the “lion” who occasionally makes an appearance in the nearby suburb of Gahanna to the ghostly stories linked to the Ohio State Penitentiary that was still in operation when I moved to this area. The Penitentiary since been demolished and was eventually replaced by a spanking new NHL hockey arena. The […]

Notes from the Crapper

I once bought a Yiddish music CD from Amazon. It was a third-party vendor. When I opened the package and took out the CD, I found it contained a Margaret Cho comedy CD. I always wondered if someone ordered the Margaret Cho CD and got the Yiddish music…I decided to keep it. Technically I don’t qualify for a […]