• Confessions,  UGH.,  Writing

    Let The To Do List-ing Begin!

    After yesterday’s announcement, I was pretty keyed up and had the absolute worst night of sleep in recent memory. It took me two hours to fall asleep in bed because I was thinkingthinkingthinking, and I was wide awake again after about two hours because I was thinkingthinkingthinking. I came downstairs at about 3:30 a.m., turned on the television and opened the ole’ laptop. I worked on a post, checked emails, and scrolled Facebook–but not for long because my friends were all sleeping at the time and there were few updates posted since I had gone to bed earlier. I finally went back to sleep on the couch and got about…

  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I'm Apparently Old.

    Old Is Relative.

    In celebration of my being the birthday girl today, I decided to take a year off from my usual “reflection route” and share with you some cold, hard facts about just how old I am. Here is a (partial) list of things that are younger than I am: ~Post-it notes ~Pong, the first video game ~Southwest Airlines ~Vince Vaughn ~Wendy’s fast food chain ~Saturday Night Live ~The Nasdaq ~Walt Disney World I’m younger than television and sliced bread, though, so at least I’ve got that going for me. Want to make this a long-term commitment? (Great birthday gift to me, by the way.) Please subscribe to my feed by clicking…

  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    Question of the Day: Got Gas?

    I’m borrowing the “Question of the Day” format that my buddy Momo Fali uses on occasion, not only because it works in this case but because Momo often feels like bad/odd/embarrassing/uncomfortable situations seek her out somehow, and, well, just read this. You know how you go out of town for Parent Weekend at your kid’s college, and you have an awesome time taking him out to Target, and to eat, and to the football game, and to Casino Night, and then when you get up the next day you take him to breakfast and hug him goodbye and then go to fill up the gas tank before you get back…

  • Childhood Memories,  I'm Apparently Old.,  Random Thoughts,  UGH.

    Vintage.

    When I was a kid, I collected rocks. Just plain old rocks. I used to delight in the acquisition of a rock that was slightly sparkly, or a small stone that had a smooth side or an interesting shape. Heart-shaped rocks and stones were my favorites, as were “worry stones”, of which I owned several. (They were plentiful when I was a kid in the 70s!) When I grew up, I started collecting two things: menorahs and cobalt blue glass pieces. Menorahs these days are so much more than just the traditional “U” shape: they are available in all shapes, sizes, and themes. I have a New York City skyline…

  • Food,  UGH.

    At Least I Didn’t Make Him Lick The Bowl.

    Tonight I made my sixteen-year-old son J finish some chips and dip. He said he was finished, but I begged to differ. Normally I don’t police his meals, really. One of the benefits of having teenaged boys in the house is that they don’t need to be coerced to eat. I would even venture to say that the lack of need for Jim and me to be directly involved with making sure they eat their vegetables (they do) or try new things (they do) almost makes up for the fact that they eat us out of house and home, as the saying goes. Almost. The reason I stepped in to…