Suprise Me

While gaggles of kids talked and laughed at lunch, I found a quiet corner and savored my solitude as I ate my sandwich alone. Thanks to a thoughtful custodian who unlocked a room for me, I could avoid being seen; I spent my period of exile in silent, and sometimes salty, contemplation. Read More

Let me just clarify at the outset: I have been stress knitting for months now, ever since this lockdown, shelter-in-place, doomscrolling life we are living began. I need something to look at so my eyes don’t cross (or close) while I’m knitting away. I say this because I have binge watched a staggering amount of… Read More

Fashion catastrophe at a junior high dance ...so I did what any resourceful fashion dork would do... Read More

How could I respond “I love you”? You always ended every conversation “I love you…”, waiting for me to respond in kind. I always heard your criticism in my head: “stand up straight”, “don’t wear your hair behind your ears”, “you missed that note” (screamed from another room as I practiced my singing while taking… Read More

As the family upgraded to newer, better cars, it got so I could drive the older one almost exclusively even though I wasn’t technically the owner. A two-tone green Cadillac that was old but didn’t exactly qualify as a beater became known as The Green Hornet. What a tank. It was like a couple of… Read More

Maybe I should have subpoenaed my grandchildren as character witnesses? Read More

It seemed like so much fun to me. The real story was much more sobering but also inspiring ... Read More

Some dates are more memorable than others. Read More

Music plays a grand role in my life. My first memory involves me discordantly playing harmonica to a blues player on a 78-rpm record. I must have been three. My mother often played the piano while I drifted into sleep. I could hear her playing the same Chopin Preludes, haltingly, but with enjoyment, on the… Read More

This is the story of the prom nobody remembers. Literally. All I know is who I went with and what I wore. Jeff, the boy I had been dating since New Year’s Eve of senior year, was a sophomore at Rutgers, but came home every weekend to see me. So when I asked him to… Read More