Today I join with my fellow comic book fanboys and fangirls in celebrating the highly anticipated opening of The Avengers or as Flixter User Reviewer Flutie Archibald called it: “. . . THE BEST MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!” Six super heroes, two secret agents and one seriously cool villain (I have had a “thing” for Loki [...]
Author Archive
A process, an end, a beginning
The college search and decision process represents, for some kids, a significant threshold. They begin to move from the present emotion of adolescence to the future rationale of adulthood. They have to consider their own identity in an attempt to find a cultural and academic match. They must take a sobering account of their performance and [...]
Pinned
As a kid, I saved Cracker Jack wrappers and vintage glass insulators from the tops of telephone poles. As an adult, my house is littered with baskets of Cape Cod sea shells, fabric from every quilt store east of the Mississippi, a Big Gulp cup full of wine corks with “cool branding,” a shelf of [...]
Holding out for a hero
When I was in sixth grade, the teacher gave us a writing assignment. “Write about one of your heroes,” she said. As my classmates immediately thought of firemen, their grandma or Jesus, I had to ponder my options. Joan of Arc? Harriet Tubman? Louis Braille? Superman? Athena? Woody Guthrie? Teresa of Ávila? The list was [...]
Stuff and story
There is always a moment when the holiday season kicks in: the first fluffy snowfall, the first decorations on sale in September, the Macy’s Parade, the smell of baking spices wafting through the house. With respectful acknowledgement that celebrations and interests vary, our family loves Christmas time and it begins when we bring the first [...]
Happy birthday to me, I mean you
The alarm went off at 5:00 am last Tuesday, but I was already awake. I had been lying there wondering if I could still cut one last rose this season to put in a bud vase. I got up with atypical morning energy and began the planned preparations. Over the next hour and a half [...]
Pretty Saro
Sometimes a song is more than a song. Sometimes you hear a song for the first time when your heart is breaking. When you are left and lost and sure no one has ever felt this alone. Then you hear this song and it is everything you feel sung exactly how you feel it. It is [...]
Ordinary adventures
My head is wrapped in a towel as I sit down and face the mirror. As she unwinds and reveals the results of the eye-burning wait, my hair tumbles out: the usual brunette, now with two banana yellow stripes along each side of my face. Not what I was expecting. My son is in the [...]
Under the mask
I remember the exact moment when I knew I was an adult. I was looking down at a scrap of paper someone had dropped on the floor. I could hear my mother’s voice in my head. As kids we just walked over things – trash, shoes, backpacks – and my mother would harangue us with incredulous [...]
I am sad Amy Winehouse is dead
I am sad Amy Winehouse is dead. I said this to a coworker on Monday morning. He said, “People die of addiction every day, why should her death be any sadder than anyone else’s.” He responded quickly, as if he had thought about it. Throughout the week I have heard bits and pieces of conversation. [...]
