The week before Thanksgiving, I got a call from my cousin Winnie. In her business-like manner and slight european accent, she channeled “Fiddler on the Roof” and said, “Marisa, do I have a man for you!”
Before I go any further, I have to explain just how much Winnie loves to act as a matchmaker. […]

I leave for home in less than 48 hours, and I am more than ready to make the switch, from independent young woman living on her own in the big city, to daughter, living with parents and sister.
I am looking forward to the moment when the dog cries with excitement upon seeing me.
To flopping down […]

A friend of a friend lives in Turkey. He is dating a young woman named Zeynep. When our friend first told us this, we all had puzzled looks flash across our faces. Ingrid said, “It sounds like a kind of tea.” I commented that I thought it sounded like an alien […]

Welcome Friday, I am so glad you are here. Because you are here, I know it is time again for me to send my iPod into shuffle and tell you what the first ten songs to show up are. Round and round we go…
1. Anthem, Gabriel Yared (Cold Mountain Soundtrack)
2. Take Me Down, […]

Keyboarding was the most valuable class I took in middle school. These days I consider that one semester I spent with Mrs. Hartzell among the most useful in my life. Not that I enjoyed it while I was in it. As a sixth grader in 1990, I didn’t understand why I needed […]

Yesterday I was standing in the back of Iovine’s Produce in Reading Terminal, chatting with a clerk while I waited for them to bring up a couple of cases of fruit for me from the basement (part of our APHA giveaway). We had been talking for about five minutes, when an elderly black man […]

I’ve been standing behind a booth for 8+ hours a day for the last three days, and still have tomorrow to contend with, so my creative juice machine is barely eeking out the trickle of inventive liquid necessary to get this sentence out of me. I’m out of breathe just writing that. So, […]

Saturday afternoon I got home from setting up the booth at APHA to two emails. One from Luna and another from Mr. Blankbaby himself. They had both written to invite me to see The Chronicles of Narnia with them that evening. I love impromptu gatherings with blogging friends, and was luckily able […]

Last night I went to a party and met my ex-boyfriend Ted’s new girlfriend. I was totally thrown by this experience. Ted and I have been broken up for a year and a half, and have recently become friends. We have a lot of history together and we enjoy each other’s company, […]

This afternoon I had to drive down to the Pennsylvania Convention Center to pick up my office’s passes for the APHA meeting. Trying to find parking in that area, especially the day after several inches of snow is not my favorite activity. I had circled the area twice and was starting to feeling […]