• Being Human - Difficulty - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    An expat in blue jello

    March 11, 2018 - By 

    But what, oh what, is a little old-ish expat to do on a rainy Sunday morning? After a breakfast of colomba and tea and strawberries from yesterday’s market…it is hours and hours before we can listen to the news we like on the internet. I apologize in advance…this post is a bit disordinato. And podcasts, yes, we listened to them most of yesterday, after going early to the mercato — another rainy day. But early at the mercato there were fewer people, hurrah, as well as strawberries, later-season artichokes (but I bought twenty of them anyway), onions, cabbage, garlic, mint,…

  • Difficulty - For fun. - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Venice: slag & vaporetto roulette.

    December 30, 2017 - By 

    Venice…Venezia. I want to embrace you. Wrap my arms around you. I adore you. I am excited just being here. I cannot explain the reason why — I have no idea. I love the green Adriatic, rising and falling between your structures. Buildings, where we stand and sit and rest and eat — always knowing that sea life is teeming under us. I love knowing that the magical underneath is always underneath me. I love knowing that while I sleep, octopus chase in the deep below. You are amazing. You are a hodgepodge of old and new and good and…

  • Difficulty - Food - Light - This really happened. - Travelling

    Two months now.

    December 27, 2017 - By 

    And now, two months. I can understand the italian on the train, on the street. The bartender last night told me that I spoke very well…and then I answered him and messed up my pronouns — as if to prove him wrong. We have had family arrive…teeny apartment now teenier. We are playing tour guides to our kin, providing train cards to all. Had a big test in class. Big one. Disappointing but so much progress and so far to go. Such a big thing to try to adjust my expectations of myself. Always having been an “A” student, realizing…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss - Safety - This really happened.

    The Fire and the Roses

    September 14, 2017 - By 

    Eleven years ago we were getting ready to leave the house for the first seder at Jane’s house. Russ was just finishing the mowing of the lawn, our table was set with china and crystal for the next evening at our house. I heard a crackling sound coming from the kitchen. I knew that I wasn’t cooking that evening…so as I entered the kitchen I saw about a foot of smoke undulating at the ceiling above the door to the garage. I went outside and found the wall between the house and the garage aflame. Quick-thinker that I am, I…

  • Being Human - Difficulty - Light - messages - Travelling

    Scaffolding.

    May 10, 2017 - By 

    I love the scaffolding. The scaffolding. I love in the city to see scaffolding against a building. I love to duck under scaffolding to go into a store to score some tea. To window shop. Scaffolding is a reminder that the city is always changing. It is always becoming. Like me. I am not just an ancient grey building but I am rebuilding, renovating. I am being remade every day. I let you all know this by stenciling on my walls Post No Bills. Like the city, I am changing but I endure. At times I need the scaffolding. I…

  • Being Human - Difficulty - Fear - Loss - This really happened.

    The S Word

    April 13, 2017 - By 

    She gave me permission to write this. We were all sitting on the couch watching the end of the basketball game. She, and the young one, and I. She looked at the vase of flowers and said, as Northwestern was losing the game, “Hey, those need more water”. She started to get off the couch, said she was dizzy, her legs collapsed under her. I caught her. I’ll get more water for the flowers, I said. Something didn’t feel right. I re-watered the flowers, hurried to the cabinet in search of a blood pressure cuff. It was over 180. Way…

  • Darkness - Difficulty - Loss - This really happened. - Travelling

    The birkenau.

    October 16, 2016 - By 

    Last month I had the privilege of going to Berlin.  It was my first time there.  Although I was still walking with my cane (aka The Wooden Leg Named Smith), I took advantage of an opportunity for a (five-hour!) walking tour to learn about Berlin’s history. Here is one story I learned. We were in the cafe courtyard of an art museum — and there we saw two modestly-sized fenced areas.   Planted within those two enclosures were bunches of birch-tree saplings.   Here was an art installation…of birch saplings. During World War II, around 1940, the Nazi leadership realized…

  • Being Human - Difficulty - Light

    Arms Akimbo

    June 9, 2015 - By 

    Today I was Wonder Woman. I woke up early and stood, arms akimbo, fists on my hips, next to my bed. My chest was out, my chin was up.  I was ready. I went to the grocery store.  I bought a cantaloupe and some rhubarb. Success. Best day of the week, so far. Last night L told me the story of a woman whose life presented such significant challenges that in order to keep up her own spirits she would adopt the Wonder Woman stance, fists on her hips, chest out, chin up and arms akimbo — before she proceeded…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Hope - Light - Safety - This really happened. - Travelling

    The Lost Mariners and Almost Missing Maui

    April 26, 2015 - By 

    I heard the most amazing story. There was a cruise ship – and a Greek captain – and two mariners. And some passengers. But I think the star of this story is a thing that is not on any map. More on that later. There is a cruise ship – and it is sailing North towards Hawaii. One morning one passenger gets up early, as he loves to do on these trips. He gets up at five – and consults the map.   He finds that the ship is not headed North at all. It has done an about-face…..it is heading South.…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Darkness - Difficulty - Family - Fear - Hope - Light - Loss - Safety

    Chaos, Kindness & The Flood of Garlic.

    October 25, 2014 - By 

    To write this, I wrote it five times — and then a sixth.  It was still a mess. I printed it out and with my green pen. I scratched out everything. Well, almost everything — so I could start again. I haven’t been able to think straight – too much on my mind.  I needed a little something. Then I woke this morning thinking of garlic. If you use a little garlic it is amazing.  It adds that special something to everything you eat.  It is almost magical the way it transforms a dish. For some, garlic is their favorite…

  • Being Human - Blessings - Differences - Difficulty - Hope

    Spam & Pomegranates

    September 15, 2014 - By 

    Today I take off on a flight of fancy. So…. Spam, you know, is more than just unwanted email. At one time, and still – and forevermore, it was and is Mystery Meat, arriving as a gift in a blue tin package. And so it was on the same radio show where Martha Stewart talked about pomegranates that she also explained a great way to prepare Spam. Martha Stewart was, as you may or may not know, raised in a family of six children. So, she said, she knows a lot about Spam. First, she suggested, find some really, really…