One day last week I was sitting in the waiting room of T.'s speech therapy place, indulging in a rare few moments of magazine-reading. The magazine I was reading had a huge, splashy picture of Kate of Jon & Kate fame (infamy?) on the front cover, and some provocative headline about their crumbling marriage, or something of that sort. One of the "regulars" there--another mom (there are about five of us regulars who are there, same time, same day, every week. [more]

I hope your Memorial Day was a little sunnier than ours. We did get lucky in the end, though. After hours of on again and off again sunshine, the rain clouds blew through around 4:00 pm and we ended up with a perfect window of sunshine for the annual potluck at our neighborhood pool. Also on again and off again most of the afternoon I cooked for the potluck (sesame noodles, banana bread, pasta salad) and listened to many remarkable stories on NPR about soldiers from days long ago, and recent days, too. [more]

There's a beautiful little park in our city--downtown, not too far from L.'s school. I used to take L. there at least once a week when he was very small, and I love the park no matter what time of the year we go. But by far my favorite time of the year to visit the park is in March, when the flowers are just beginning to bloom, and the rides have opened up for the season. For a mere $1.00 you can ride a train around the park, or take a pint-sized boat ride, or ride a pony on the historic Dentzel carousel. And T. [more]

We've been having record heat for the past four days--triple-digit heat, in fact. When I open the back door in the mornings to put out the dogs (yes, dogs in the plural--we're dog-sitting my in-laws' early-rising beagle--I'm convinced he's part beagle, part rooster, actually), the heat hits my face like a blast from an exhaust pipe. The grass is brittle, the air is almost tangible, it hangs so heavily over everything. [more]

Lately I seem to be experiencing lots of armchair wanderlust. I've been daydreaming about travel, about new places and old ones, too. I'd love to visit my sister in Rhode Island, my cousin in Boston, my closest girlfriend who lives near Seattle, my old roommate in LA. All week I've had encounters with people who drop by my office to tell me about faraway places and there I am listening, almost knee-deep in papers and book orders, on the edge of my seat, lost in thought for myself and excited for them. [more]