My bedroom is my refuge. It first became my room when I was 10 years old. Before that I lived in all the other upstairs bedrooms at one time or another. But they were all connected by a hall and were contiguous to each other and the hall. When in 1952, the addition my parents had been planning was completed, my room became the farthest one from any other. It was on the last north-most part of the house. I…
I am on what is supposed to be a vacation with my mother, at her summer house in R. I. She is? happy as a clam. (Is that too much of a cliche for this post?) She spends her days napping and eating breakfast in the late morning. She eats 2 fruits and a piece of toast and a scrambled egg and a piece of bacon every single morning. She sits in the light and airy breakfast room with it’s…
????????????????? Have you ever tried a 40- hour fast? It sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? I have been doing a program called The Long-Term Solution with David King (?https://www.davidkingfitness.com/ ), who is a diet and lifestyle coach. He is the Tony Robbins of the weight- loss world. He has a major health program going. It is obviously very successful. ?He insists that though his diet guidelines are definitely Keto in design, he makes sure it is nutritional Ketosis. And it is….
If you find yourself caring for an aging parent, please try to find support in a group of people who have similar problems and who need help as much as you do. You will find strength in each other. You may learn from others in the group about what to expect next. And listening to their stories will make you feel humble, and grateful, sometimes. It is such a comfort to be with others who are struggling with this same…
I believe in womanhood, womanly arts, childbirth, and sexual activity between opposite sexes. This is my own belief, not to be made public, universally or used to defame any group. It is not anti- gay. It is not anti- men. And it is certainly not meant to upset any other splinter group of non-conforming people. Having said that, here is why I think it. From babyhood I loved being a girl. I suppose it may be that my mother was…
The meeting we went to at Occasions Caterer is worth mentioning. It is a huge firm. http://occasionscaterers.com/They have around thirty events a day. It is extraordinary when you think of how many things can go wrong at thirty different events. But, for us, nothing went wrong. It was all set up in a Tasting Room: a table with candelabra and flower arrangements and many glasses and chargers on placemats. It looked like a lovely dinner party. And we all sat…
Today I looked at my room and it is a mess. I really looked at it, for the first time in months. There is a paper sack sitting by a nightstand in which there are files that I brought up from Charlottesville. There is no telling what is in that sack. Unexamined by me all this time, it could be important; but let’s hope it is not. Every surface is covered, more or less, with stuff. Considering the fact that…
In my youth I NEVER worried about who I might be or what I planned to do with my life. The answer shown like a beacon. Grow up. Leave my father’s house. Become a bride. Move into someone else’s house. Have children. Make sure they were happy and not afraid. Try to make sure they remember their childhood as carefree and loving and just plain fun. That picture of the perfect family grew strong in me. It settled in my…
It is hard to believe how many changes have occurred in the last year. Now I live in Washington DC with my 99 year old Mother. But a year ago I still had a home of my own. I had a dinner party for my 75th birthday in January 2017. I had 34 people for dinner (and only seating for 30) My two wonderful sons in law sat in the library and watched football because there was no room for…
The good thing is that I write all the time, every day at least a little bit. I read somewhere that people who write should NEVER pay attention to the reaction of their own families to their work. Just write and let the others be damned! However, I have been guilty of this for the last 8 years. It paralyzed my writing when my family reacted with embarrassment about my book Ahead of the Curve.? One of my daughters was…
I began to move a couple of weeks ago, but this is an unusual type of move and so it is taking a lot longer than normal. Perhaps I should mention that I have lived in this house for 9 years and I love it here. I love the area, I love the house, and I wish I could stay. However my mother is 99 years old. She will reach the age of 100 in less than 4 months. She…
