It’s not that empty nest doesn’t have its advantages; it does. I worked on my monthly budget last evening. The straight-off-the-top out-of-pocket expenses that I can now eliminate are significant. Very significant. Which makes it crystal clear that the estimates of $1,000/month per child (to raise them) are – or were – very low, in […]
Archives for 2011
Pausing At The Light
It takes planning, and a willingness to run the risk of inconvenience if the traffic patterns are off, or my back starts acting up. But a trip to the Farmer’s Market for all that food, glorious food? For the sensual pleasure of an abundance of organically raised produce, not to mention grass-fed beef and wild-caught […]
Anti Anti-Aging, Pro Great Glow
I thought it was the usual – a skinnied-down version of a new magazine in a world gone virtual. Daring, I thought, as attempting any sort of print publication in this age of the Internet is an uphill battle. But I set aside the bills from the mailbox, and sat down to page through. I […]
Not A Cloud In Sight
The sky is blue. Not a cloud in sight. The neighborhood is silent except for the swell and retreat of cicadas in song, the occasional barking of fenced-in dogs, the passing of a car in no particular hurry. A private plane overhead banks and soars. The air is surprisingly sweet and fresh, as though some […]
Why Reading This Doesn’t Matter a Damn
Every little thought. Every little detail. Every. Single. Word. Does it matter, really? What we say and why we say it? What we write and our motivations for doing so? Who’s reading? Who’s not reading? Why do we think that each statement or question we put to ourselves is of interest to anyone else? Why […]
That Sinking Feeling
You know that feeling when you have a long, detailed list of tasks to accomplish, and you haven’t checked off a single one? You know that feeling when every time you start to sort through a pile of papers and files, you encounter something that triggers a reverie, a malevolent memory, and subsequent disappearance into […]
Bickering
It’s not that I expect all of us to play nice all of the time. But men and women really can get along if they try. And married people? Isn’t that the idea? I was watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premiere, and I’ll take Lisa Vanderpump’s approach to marital maneuvering over the constancy […]
If Your Partner Says One Thing, Do You Hear Something Else?
The intricacies of communication in relationships.
Another Day, Another Kid?
For a moment I actually considered it. Scratch that. For five moments I considered it. I admit I’d spent the day in a perpetual state of “weepy,” particularly since I unearthed a stack of Polaroids of my younger son from a decade ago. Cue the eye leakage. The occasional heaving sob. More eye leakage. Then […]
Labor Day? No Mood For Play
You’re dashing through Kroger and stuck in the check-out line, you’re tapping your foot as your eyes settle on headlines in the news stand, you’re trying to look away but the words are impossible to ignore. You know the ones – those that blare the sluggish (dare we say, nonexistent) job growth during the […]