Sitting in the lobby of the dermatologist’s office, waiting for my name to be called, I passed the time glancing discretely (I hope) around the room checking out the other waiting patients. [Read more…]

I’ve always wanted a pet of my own. Not just one I had to take care of (I’ve had plenty of those) but one I actually got to name. [Read more…]

Have you ever looked at your life and thought, “This is not how I imagined it would be”?

I found myself thinking that this weekend. Actually, I often find myself thinking that, but this time it was a revelation. [Read more…]

Waking up is hard to do. It’s harder on some days than on others, especially for those of us (and we know who we are) who will never be “morning people.” [Read more…]

(NOTE: I’m taking this week off. The following column is a reprint from some years back.)

In the drugstore, when I got lost looking for shampoo and ended up on the “Back to School” aisle, I saw a mother with three young children picking out school supplies. The girl wanted everything pink. The boy wanted anything “Spider-Man.” The baby wanted something to chew on. And the mother just wanted a break. [Read more…]

Some things get easier to say with age. “I love you,” for example, and “I am sorry.”
I’ve gotten pretty good at saying those things. Also, “Have you seen my glasses?” and “Can you speak a bit louder?”
But I’m still not much good at saying goodbye. I try, but the words get stuck in my throat and I end up spitting them out like a mouthful of Listerine.
Is there ever a good way to say goodbye? [Read more…]

One of the things I love about my home state, North Carolina, is its motto: “Esse quam videri,” which means, I am told, “To be, rather than to seem.”
I learned that bit of trivia long after I had left the South to live my life and rear my children in California, where the state motto is _ guess what? [Read more…]

I’m a fisherman’s daughter and proud of it, but I will tell you this: I flat-out hate to fish.
I hate the hooks, the bait, the sitting and waiting and most of all, the not talking. The only parts of fishing I don’t hate are the fish I never catch. [Read more…]

 “Between the dark and the daylight, when the night is beginning to lower, comes a pause in the day’s occupations that is known as the Children’s Hour.”
That’s the opening line of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I memorized it in fifth grade (the whole poem, not just the first line) and recited it in a school contest in front of God and all his angels and a cafeteria full of parents that included my mother. Much to my surprise, I won a trophy. [Read more…]

What makes a friendship?
Six years ago, I left my life in California to start a new life with my new husband in a new world called Las Vegas. I hoped to stay connected to old friends, and also make a few new ones.
It hasn’t been easy. Keeping and making friends takes time and energy, not to mention attention, all of which I often seem to be in short supply. [Read more…]