WARNING: this is a longer-than-usual read but I don’t think you’ll mind. This is quite a story. Last Friday on a quick trip to New Orleans, Jim and I were in the French Quarter, trying to catch a streetcar over to the Garden District. The corner stop was crowded, and a woman in a wheelchair was telling nobody in particular that the streetcars were full by the time they arrived at this particular stop. The way to actually get on one was to walk down the street and go around the corner to catch it at the end of/beginning of the line. Nobody paid much attention to her. Then, when…
-
-
The Legacy She Left
It’s been one year. Every morning as I get dressed and ready for whatever my schedule has in store I look at this picture, which is hanging on the wall in my closet. On some days it’s just a quick and meaningful glance as I walk out to my bedroom: I do the mental equivalent of football players jumping up and smacking a motivational sign on their way out of the locker room. On other days I stand under the picture, which hangs just above my eye level, and think about a conversation she and I once had or silently let her know that she’d love what I’m doing that…
-
Putting “Take a Picture: It’ll Last Longer” Into Action
Some of my favorite conversations with people I don’t know have come about because of the car I drive, a 2020 Ford Mustang Convertible in “Race Red”. Things you may or may not know about this car: I had two funny conversations just last week. The first one was in Nashville, when I was on my way to meet a friend for lunch. The car top was down, of course (June!), and my music was blasting, as usual. I exited the highway and stopped for the traffic light at the top of the ramp. A small white sedan was in the left lane, and the driver and her passenger were…
-
A Picture Is Worth 1037 Words
Sometimes the really great stories aren’t really great because something extraordinary happened. Stories can be really great if you’re with exactly the right person at exactly the right place, doing exactly the right thing. This is one of those stories, and it happens to be a favorite of mine (and was a favorite of Liz’s, of course). In December 2016 we were on the BlogHer conference team, and we all traveled to Orlando, Florida to do a site visit for the conference we would present six months later. Site visits were always fun because we all worked remotely, all around the country, and they were excellent opportunities to get everyone…
-
Sea Glass Beach
While I’ve never once lived in the Northeast, I have traveled to New Jersey many, many times. Having a second family there courtesy of my best friend resulted in my visiting multiple times each year, sometimes for a long weekend, sometimes for a week. Once I stayed for ten full days. Naturally I became very familiar with Central New Jersey (the home of Liz and her family) as well as many places along the Jersey Shore, all the way down to Cape May, the settings for many of our shenanigans. I have always felt very much at home in that state which, by the way, is more beautiful than most…
