20 great things about summer

It is nearly ten pm and it is still very hot here in my house.  My forearms are sweating against the table. The air is perfectly still.  The dogs are sprawled with their bellies exposed to the air, hoping for a breath of cool.  In a little while, CR and I will retreat to the [...]

Your secret talents

One of those email questionaires has been making the rounds and a recent one asked, “What is your secret talent?”  One of my respondents (I will not out him/her unless s/he wishes to confess) answered, “Making other people sound good when they sing. “  How is that for being able to spread happiness in the [...]

Never quite long enough

(I debated whether to post this, but I would not be me if I didn’t tell you this story, so here it is.)
I’m thinking tonight of my cat Leo, who was killed Saturday night by a fox or a coyote. Probably the fox I’ve seen trotting down the street so boldly, owning it. The fox [...]

California dreamin’…tidbits

Celebrity sighting today: John McCain, no more than 20 feet from the room where we were about to begin our memoir class.  He is very small.  I’m not sure why that surprised me so much, but it did. 
For those looking for the voice worksheet, find it here: http://my.sbwriters.com/profile/BarbaraSamuel
I’m blogging tomorrow (Wednesday) at Writer Unboxed.  A [...]

Summer rituals

When I was a tween, my grandmother lived in Sedalia, Colorado.  At the time, it was about six by twelve houses wide, a spit of town scattered behind a Johnson’s Corner on a narrow two lane highway between west Denver and I-25.   A train track ran along the road in front of my grandmother’s house, [...]

Ordinary things

Creative commons photo by fluor doublet
Last night, I carried an orange upstairs with me as my evening snack.  When I peeled it, there was a perfectly formed baby orange inside, complete with thin perfect skin and perfectly formed, tiny segments inside.  I would have taken a photo, but it was really so adorable and intriguing [...]

Look what beauty there is in the world!

While in NYC, Younger Son, his girlfriend, and I, visited the Museum of Modern Art. I had not visited, and it was high on the GF’s list, since she is an emerging photographer. The building itself, created to offer angles and perspectives and surprises and glimpses, as much a work of art [...]

Standing still

On our last morning in New York, I took a quick look around, at the black and white wallpaper and the framed vintage magazine prints and the chandaliers made of plastic beads and thought, as I did several times over our stay,  “I wish I could stay in this happy moment a little bit longer.”
But [...]

A parental moment of delight

Indulge me.
Here he is, last Wednesday.  (Is that the expression of an adoring grandmother or what?)
Not the easiest child to raise, mainly because he was smarter than me from the moment he arrived on the planet.  Questing. Intense. From the first moment he raised his eyes to mine in the delivery room, calmly and with [...]

A rainy night in Chelsea

My whole family has come to New York to help me celebrate my son’s graduation from NYU.  The big surprise is how my father fits in here, a big Irish talker, chatting up the waitresses and talking to all the cops and the cab drivers and joining right in with all the commentary of the [...]

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