Last night my cell phone rang at 3:03 am, ripping me out of sleep.  Deep, sweaty, rapid-eye-movement, body immobilized sleep.  In the first second of half-wakeful awareness, I was able to identify the fact that my phone was playing my mom’s ring.  My thoughts ranged through all the possible worst case scenarios that come with […]

This afternoon, I settled down on the living room couch with a book, prepared to spend a peaceful hour by myself, doing nothing but reading.  About ten minutes into this time, my roommate walked into the room.  He wasn’t whistling, or talking on the phone or even walking loudly.  And yet I was instantly irritated, […]

I spent 45 minutes in Washington, DC today, and four hours on a train, getting there and coming back. I went for work, to deliver a document that absolutely, positively had to be in today. People were working and rushing to get it done all morning, while I sat quietly in my office, […]

This is the picture of my grandma Bunny that I pulled out of my aunt’s basement last Sunday. I had never seen this photo before that moment, and at first glance, I had to struggle to match up this face with the one I carry around with me in my mind. The detail […]

I sat down at my desk tonight, intending to write a post about seeing “Little Miss Sunshine” tonight and how it made me laugh. I was then going to write about how I used to be known, during my freshman year of college, as the girl who would laugh hysterically during dinner in the […]

I spent two hours with my Great-Aunt Anne yesterday afternoon. The drive from Philly to New Town Square seemed shorter than I remembered, and soon I was turning on to her street. I stopped at Wawa on my way to get her a tuna salad sandwich and a bottle of root beer, her […]

Digging around my refrigerator this afternoon, I turned up five abandoned, wrinkled apples and one bruised peach with a gouge on it’s side. These half dozen pieces of fruit spoke to me, pleading to be turned into apple(peach) sauce instead of taking a trip down the trash shute. Being that I was already […]

Last night my sister called me three minutes after I had turned off my light to go to sleep. I had been focusing my energy on relaxing my toes when the phone rang, but happily put off that task when I realized it was her. We chatted aimlessly for about ten minutes, about […]

My grandmother Tutu, the one who lived for more than 35 years in my apartment, wore false eyelashes until the day when her aging coordination stopped allowing it. She special-ordered the lashes from a beauty store in Los Angeles that she had discovered in the early 80’s while visiting us in Eagle Rock. […]

Reading in Rittenhouse Square tonight, I could feel fall.  During the day it is still agresssively summer, but between the hours of 8 and 9 pm, when the sky is lit with angular, streaky rays of light, and a breeze makes the leaves in the trees flounce with attitude, I can sense the presence of […]