When I was growing up, my family always took Halloween very seriously. Starting in early September, dinner-time conversations would revolve around plotting out the logistics of costumes for my sister and myself. There was a period of about ten years where we built complex animal heads out of chicken wire and masking tape […]

If you want to see how I spent my Saturday night, check out this Flickr set. In celebration of the turning back of the clocks, my friend Shay convened the fourth annual Fall Back Party (although this year renamed In-Towners/Out-of-Towners).

My sister did the first show of her tour last night, and my sources say that it went very well. She made $15 in tips and sold two CDs, which in my mind is an auspicious start to the tour. She is now down in LA at a folk music conference and had […]

I had a lovely, if slightly tipsy afternoon today, hanging out with the crew of Philly bloggers. I left a little earlier than most, after a raucous two and a half hours and two and a half beers, because I’m attending a party tonight to which I have been asked to bring a salad […]

It’s Friday, and that means I eschew a substantive post to instead tell you what the first ten songs my iPod spits out are.
1. Comin’ Down the Rain, Nanci Griffith (Other Voices, Other Rooms)
2. Hoochie Woman, Tori Amos (The Beekeeper)
3. Fall Into Me, Lorna Bracewell (God Forbid)
4. Please, Eric Hutchinson (This Could Have Gone Better)
5. […]

When my grandparents married in December of 1969, it was a second marriage for both of them. They came together having already had full lives and three children a piece. They merged their lives and their belongings, two large suburban houses into a single two-bedroom apartment (the one in which I currently live). […]

Tonight I went to a free screening of “Nine Lives” at the Ritz Bourse. A week and a half ago, I emailed the review of this movie to my movie buddy (just one among many buddy roles she plays in my life) Shay with a note that said, “I want to see!!!” The […]

This morning, in my hurry to get myself dressed, I did something I swore I would never do past the age of seven. I put on knee socks. My mother used to wear knee socks on a regular basis. I remember watching her pull them on in the morning when I was […]

I’m having trouble finding anything worth writing at the moment. I’ve started a post about how I learned to roast red peppers (inspired by a recent soup making moment) as well as a post about the pleasures of making dinner for a friend. They both have lots of potential but I am singularly […]

There is an alley in Old City, between Church and Market, between 2nd and 3rd that is still paved with cobblestones. If you stand towards the end at night and squint your eyes so that the electric lights go fuzzy and don’t turn your head too much, you can imagine that you have left […]