I lived the first eight summers of my life in Eagle Rock, CA, a suburb of LA that is situated right between Pasadena and Glendale.  We would often come to Philly for long chunks of time during the summers to visit the grandparents, but we’d still have stretches of summer weeks in hot, smoggy LA.
We […]

Saturday afternoon, as I was walking over to Scott’s apartment, so that he could finish restoring my computer back to it’s original state, I saw a woman scrubbing her stoop. She was wearing hot pink shorts and a tank top, had short blonde hair and lots of eye make. She was solidly in […]

It’s been a couple of weeks since I managed to get a Random Friday set up. Being on vacation has a way of screwing up my blogging schedule (which is actually okay with me). But it’s Friday, and I’ve got a pocket of time, so I’m doing it.
You know the rules: set your […]

I pulled myself out of bed this morning a couple of minutes after 6 am, which is WELL before my usual rise time. Squinting my myself in the bathroom mirror, I had a hard time identifying my features, so wrinkled was my face from the pillow and the lack of sleep.
I was at work […]

I just lifted my hand to my face to mindless pick the zit that’s growing in my right eyebrow, and realized that my hands still smell slightly of baby. Of that inarticulateable infant scent that contains trust and sleep and love and shampoo that doesn’t sting. I don’t particularly want to wash my […]

This morning while I was walking into my office building, I happened to glance up and make eye contact with a man just in front of me. He was walking into the building as well. He took a cursory look at me, and then looked more intently and said, “Hey, how are you […]

Ever since I was 16 and was able to drive, I’ve been going grocery shopping by myself. When I was in high school, my mom would send me to Fred Meyers with a list, a paper-clipped cluster of coupons and a blank check (along with the knowledge that she could count on me not […]

My aunt Flora gave up her psychiatry practice when she was 64, convinced that she was developing alzheimer’s disease.  When it became apparent that she was experiencing nothing more than the normal memory lapses of advancing age, she told anyone who asked that she was going to die any day, in her sleep, from a […]

My parents and I took a day trip to the coast today. It was 75 degrees, clear skies and beautiful out. We stopped briefly at a house in Banks, OR that my parents are rehabbing to sell. It is on 15 acres of wooded land about a half hour from Portland. The air there smells […]

This afternoon, my parents and I packed a picnic, said goodbye to the dog and piled into the car for a trip out to Sauvie Island, for some blueberry picking. After a stop at the post office and the bank (this is always the way with my family) we were finally on the road. It’s […]