We were pressed for time. Again. While my son finished dressing and filling his backpack, I put a plate of fried eggs and toast on the table. Orange juice next to it. I paced a little. I hate running late. He swallowed down breakfast and gulped the juice, grabbed his things, asked for the car […]
Permission to Fail? I Don’t Think So.
My son got home late last evening. I wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy. After his 13-hour day, with plenty of homework ahead, he looked tired and discouraged. His reason for being so late? An informational session on a scholarship program, and its first set of qualifying exercises. He perked up when he talked about it, […]
News
Yesterday I was doing some editing and talking on the phone, when I was told to look at the news. A man had taken hostages at the Discovery Channel just outside of Washington, DC. There was a gun, and possibly explosives. I got off the phone. I put on CNN. I watched, and then had […]
Flipping the switch
On parenting, on pending Empty Nest, on making a difference.
Travel Day
It’s here. Again. A day of last minute laundry and packing, goodbyes, airports. The house, suddenly so quiet, as my teenager prepares to fly back to college. To begin his sophomore year. It was an evening of more loads of wash than I can count, the heap of luggage in the living room finally emptied, […]
Numbers Do Not Lie
We’d been at it for several hours, side by side, each of us on our laptops. Spread on the small ottoman pressing against my knees were stacks of old tax forms. On the chair beside me, two more folders with notes and figures. We actually began the process days ago, but I couldn’t continue, and […]
Put Your Kids to Work!
Kids? Organizing? Can the two ever mix?
Juicy
Sometimes all it takes is a few words. Or an hour, even if it’s filled with 140-character communications, and they wind up being smart, provocative, and playful. Last evening I hopped on Twitter, restlessly, after a long day. I was well aware that the pleasure of pondering and writing about contemporary art – my usual, […]
Cake
Yes, there was one more teen party last night. Yes, I heard it. No, I wasn’t annoyed; I managed to sleep five hours anyway, and that’s good enough for the day’s mission: cake. Coffee I’ve been under the weather for a number of days, and I had plans to meet a friend for coffee last […]
Sink or Swim
Fond of clichés? Don’t they breeze into our minds and tumble out of our mouths faster than a speeding bullet? Catchy little phrases stick, don’t they? Good for what ails you? A quick fix? Oh yeah – tidy gems to sum up the world’s wisdom, like life isn’t fair, you get what you pay for, […]