Oh, for the eccentricities and entertainment of just the right request to go to Prom! (Yes, it really is that time of year. Again.) Last year, I seem to recall my younger son being encouraged (make that coerced) into repeated prom-asking-behaviors that personally, I found to be a bit much. There was a considerable Butterfly […]
Weepy
Good things are happening. Some I’ve written about, and others, I haven’t. I’m trying to process them, to manage them, to make adjustments. Some days I think I’m doing okay. Other days, not so much. Most of the time I have the sensation of treading water, sliding beneath the surface, gasping for air, then forcing […]
Secret Single Behavior (Even If You’re Married)
Who doesn’t remember the Sex and the City episode in which the girls talk about their secret single behavior? What woman – or man for that matter – doesn’t have their little set of private habits and rituals they’d rather not divulge? Tantalizing rewards for your psyche? Hidden haunts for an indulgence or two? Come […]
Realizations
It’s really happening. It’s really happening. I say it over and over. In my head. In disbelief. And I say this, as I have lived it: Opportunity comes to those who work. I’m tired. I’m distracted. The chair is large and my feet are dangling which is annoying. I want to laugh at the same […]
The College Countdown
This past weekend, my morning reading brought me to a blog post on the New York Times, written by a high school senior, Michael Campbell, about his college search process. As he counts down to receiving decision letters, everywhere he goes he is asked “Where are you going to college?” And of course, it’s too […]
Who Haven’t You Met – Yet?
It was worn and fragile, about two inches long, with a brown cover in soft leather. Inside, its translucent pages bore minuscule print which was nonetheless legible – verse after verse, recounting a tale of missed opportunities and lost love. It was Longfellow’s Evangeline. Somewhere, stored in a box in the back of a drawer, […]
Stella Dallas
It stopped me cold, and I couldn’t change the channel. It was Barbara Stanwyck, in 1937’s Stella Dallas, a film I hadn’t seen in years. It’s the story of a working class mother who manages to marry into money, leaves her husband, then raises her daughter under difficult (and questionable) circumstances. Years later, when the […]
Time on Your Hands?
Spare time? Are you kidding? What do you do when your friends or partners can take time off, and you simply can’t? When your schedule is bursting at the seams, even on the weekends? What if you feel like there’s never time to catch up, to take stock, to plan productively, much less to snooze, […]
Pucker Up
How much do you know about your teenager’s social life? How much does he or she know about yours? I can’t remember ever catching one of my sons in a furtive lip lock. (I suspect that both are smart enough to retreat to the leafier areas of our yard, to their rooms, or to a […]
Deal Breakers
A list of non-negotiables before marriage, and maybe after.