My brother Bernie called me last night. He said he was making Limoncello. I love that he and my brother Bob still do that kind of thing. It’s proof they haven’t lost their Italian-ness. The label with my dad’s photo on it is one of Bob’s wine labels. Bernie was peeling lemons as we talked, and I wanted to watch, so we Face-timed, and it was almost…
Well, I seem to be surviving the departure of my daughter. At first, I wondered if I’d ever be alone because right after my daughter left, my son came and visited for a couple nights, but I was alone last weekend, which left time for an old friend to come and stay over and for me to finally clean my daughter’s room the way I’ve been dying to…
I just calculated the last time I lived alone and it was somewhere around 30 years ago. So, once I finish the dishes that my daughter lovingly left me as a parting gift (so I wouldn’t miss her too much) and get the house cleaned, then get rid of all the furniture she left in my living room, (anybody need a nice dark brown desk?) I am going…
I went to the movies last week and saw Baby Driver, a movie so full of amazing action, romance, sweetness, fast cars, evil, and the most fantastic sound track, it has me thinking about cars and music, and how sometimes the combination can be life-changing. I also now understand why people get so attached to their cars. My car is not flashy. It’s a 2006 dark gray/blue Honda…
I love getting to know my kids friends and realizing there are no pesky serial killers or violent offenders to worry about. They’re good kids who I enjoy hanging out with too. I love them all, especially Reef, my daughter’s boyfriend, who entered sainthood the day he served as spotter — helping me pinpoint where my intestinally challenged dog had left lovely gifts on my living room rug.…
I learned six things from my two weeks of attempted non-swearing. #1. Self-control is not my strong point. #2. I swear quite a bit. Not horribly, just conversationally. A damn here, a hell there, with sh*t as my go-to word. When I’m sewing, driving, or discovering my dog pooping on my carpet, I use the f-bomb. (Sister Janet, if you’re reading this — I’m sorry I’ve failed you.)…
When I first started recording audiobooks, every book was a combination of thrill and anxiety. I got the book — thrill. I’d pre-read the book — anxiety — more characters than I realized. I’d make up character voices — thrill. I’d worry they might be off — anxiety.…
In a moment of love and serious overconfidence, I offered to make curtains for my friend, Kimberly. I measured one of what looked like three identical windows in her breakfast nook, only to discover that the impostor middle window was five inches longer than the other two. So entered the first string of expletives. Then, in a misguided second moment of love and overconfidence, I offered to fix…
Esther and I met in a beginners swim class. She was quiet, laughed at all my silly comments, and was determined to learn to swim, so of course, I liked her. She wore a cute bathing suit with a sheer, pink, flouncy skirt that looked like a ballet outfit and had the nice legs I wish I’d been born with. We chatted between death-defying episodes of attempted swimming,…
One of the toughest assignments I ever had was in seventh grade religion class. Sister Generosa gave us our assignment: Do something nice for someone we didn’t know — every day during Lent. And here’s the kicker, we couldn’t tell anyone. When I first heard that I thought, “What kind of lunatic goes around doing nice things for strangers and then never even gets to brag about it?”…