Laying under an unadorned Christmas tree last night trying to wrestle the stand supports into place, I found myself smelling not the heady, green smell of noble fir, but instead an aroma that seemed very close to cat pee. I mentioned the scent to my mom, who was holding up the tree. We discussed how [...]
My family moved to Portland in the spring of 1988, and that fall was the first time we were on our own for Thanksgiving. In the years before we had always gone to my grandma Bunny’s house in Woodland Hills, CA and gathered around her big table with the rest of the extended Los [...]
The turkey is rinsed, defrosted and ready to be stuffed. A big bowl of roasted sweet potato puree with vanilla bean and orange zest is ready to be reheated (I had a moment of panic when it appeared that I had killed my mom’s Vitamix in the process of pureeing. Thankfully, I had [...]
Monday afternoon I stood at my dining room table, flipping through a splayed out copy of the New York Times, when an obituary caught my eye and made me lean in to better read it. It reported that a ninety-eight year old woman named Ernestine Gilbreth Carey had died. My heart squeezed in [...]
My parents knew each other two weeks when they decided to get married. When my dad proposed, my mom thought about it briefly and said, “Okay, but let’s not tell anyone in case we change our minds.” They didn’t change their minds, and six weeks after they met, they were married.
When I was [...]
For her 7th birthday, my grandmother gave my mom an orange-flavored cake. It was store-bought and lovely and made my mom, who would have preferred something chocolate and homemade, cry.
During the celebration of her 8th birthday, my mom was so excited that as she inhaled deeply to blow out her candles, she passed out [...]
Pictures of the engagement party cum surprise wedding are up. I’ve carved the 350+ I took down to a (mostly) manageable set of 128. Ellen has been uploading some of the shots I took, along with other pictures from friends and family here.
I haven’t yet had the opportunity to carve a couple paragraphs [...]
While on the phone with my mom last Monday, in the middle of a normal conversation, her voice suddenly dropped and became slightly muffled.
“Ma, are you alright? You sound kind of odd.”
“I don’t want your dad to hear, because I’m about to remind you to send him a Father’s Day card.”
“Oh crap, that’s next [...]
About ten minutes ago, I sat down in front of my computer, in the first pocket of total downtime I’ve had all weekend, thinking that I would be able to write a blog entry that would be able to do justice to any of the things I did. I’m rapidly realizing that just ain’t gonna [...]
My family has a tradition of moving over Memorial Day Weekend, so every year, I’m grateful when Memorial Day comes and goes without boxes, bubble wrap and moving vans. When they don’t include moving, I have always been partial to holiday weekends. People kick back a little more than normal, comfortable in the knowledge that [...]
