Suprise Me

Sorry, I can’t think of a song for this story, it’s too solemn a subject. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was in Birmingham, AL, for the quarterly meeting of the Environment Sector of the Electric Power Research Institute.  After breakfast at the hotel, a group of us piled into a van to… Read More

I loved being a lawyer. I can't think of any other career I would have rather had. Well, except for being a rock 'n' roll singer - that would have been the best. Read More

 I wrote a series of letters to my mother around Mother’s Day, ten years after her death: my attempt to get to a place of forgiveness.  Dear Mom, I guess we were a mismatch from the beginning. You wanted a boy; you got me: a scabby-kneed tree-climber, a girl who played with mud and tar… Read More

Henrietta was an awkward name for a tiny child ... so the family called her Yettie. Read More

My history with computers, both plus and minus in my life and work Read More

  In 1946 George Orwell wrote, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” He went on to complain of the ways political speech had largely become “the defense of the indefensible”. After 75 years his words seem more appropriate than… Read More

I tend to love romantic movies; big sweeping costume dramas, though occasionally go for thoughtful dramas. It is difficult for me to pick just five that have rocked my world, as I love to come back to favorites and watch them over and over again, just for pure pleasure. So I will share my top… Read More

Simply put, we were desperate to move back to a deeply blue eastern state. Read More

Today I’m thinking about all the women I have worked with. Some have been bosses, many many colleagues, and now I have two women who are my employees (heaven help them). I want to honor the women who taught me how to work: Cathy, the nurse manager at UCSF who hired me fresh out of… Read More

I first read the book when I was a teenager. It’s the only book I missed two meals to finish. I staggered out of my bedroom late in the afternoon after turning the last page. I’d been lost for what seemed like days in the lives of Scarlett, Ashley, Melanie and Rhett. My parents must… Read More