Suprise Me

Terry comes charging through the front door spewing tears and rage. “Janet just broke up with me!” he howls. And with one long wave of his arm, he sweeps dozens of beer and wine bottles off the kitchen counter and sends them crashing to the floor. The party grinds to a cheap, ugly close. Read More

  Strange Fall Other years Autumn  Means  First the poison oak leaves flame a brilliant red,  while the mountain maple blazes yellow. Usually the thrumming cricket chorus thins to a few hardy soloists when the morning and evening’s chill  signals winter’s shadow  hiding around the slipping sunshine. This year the talk of drought and global… Read More

I always loved to dance, but was a sickly kid, so my mother withdrew me from dance lessons. I came back as an adult beginner to ballet class in my early 20s. Though never great, I truly enjoyed it. I have a wonderful sense of rhythm, can dance modern and “pop” very well, but enjoyed… Read More

I devised an ingenious way to break the arrangement to my mom. Or so I thought. Read More

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

Funerals were forbidden when I was growing up. They were mysterious events my parents attended with other adults. My first introduction to this final rite of passage was my grandfather Philip Krut’s funeral on May 2, 1972. I was 26 years old and the mother of a one-year-old. Did I attend alone? Were my husband… Read More

Does everyone want to lose weight in the new year? My resolution began after seeing photos of myself from our first trip to Italy in 2011. I had never been so heavy. I looked puffy and not like myself. I didn’t want to turn 60 on December 10, 2012 looking like that. I had never… Read More

As an added bonus, Jiminy Cricket taught me how to spell "encyclopedia." Read More

It was lonely.  I suppose it was just adolescent agonizing over the search for independence and existential meaning, while simultaneously longing for acceptance and inclusion from kids my age. You know, the usual. Read More

As we stood there, very excited to have busted in without tickets, Neil Young was joking about “Sugar Mountain,” a song that he told us had too many verses. Read More