Last week, I found myself musing among boxes. Some gaped open, begging for sustenance like baby birds. Others I had already closed and taped shut, firmly shut, three or four strips of tape apiece. As I sorted through the immense and innumerable piles and drawers and baskets and shelves of…
The Absence of One
For those who did not tune in to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, China a couple of weeks ago, you missed out on the most spectacular display of showmanship and all-around artistic prowess in the history of the games or, perhaps, the history of the world.…
Nemesis
All the mechanical noises, the thrum of electricity in the veins of my cubicle, the brief beeps of protest elicited by a misplaced cursor, the buzz of my monitor, printer, even the flicker of my digital picture frame, conspire against my creativity, damming the imaginative river in my mind, my…
A Tall Spire of Curious Workmanship (or what the Camps did on Sunday)
At the behest of a friend, an experienced hiker, Jonathan and I joined a group of people on a trek to Cathedral Peak. Jonathan had not been to Yosemite yet this year, a travesty in our household, so we quickly agreed to go. It would give Jon a chance to…
What did you wish, George?
"Oh, not just one wish. A whole hat full! "Mary, I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow and the next day and next year and the year after that. I'm gonna shake the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world! Italy, Greece,…
Adding Running to My Repertoire
On Saturday, Jonathan and I woke early and ran 8 miles. Yes, you heard me correctly. We dragged ourselves out of bed at six in the morning on a Saturday, walked to PW Market for a Power Bar and a banana, waited an hour for the sake of digestion, and…
Red Bird
What is this tightness at my throat? If I was a man in a gray flannel suit, I'd wait for a particularly intense boardroom meeting and then grasp the knot of the tie at my throat and yank down, wrenching it away from me. But I'm no man, there's no…
A Good Old American Meal
My husband is cooking dinner. That's right. The man is standing at a cutting board chopping ears of corn in half so that they will fit in our smallish pot of water (we don't own a big one). Pork chops are searing on the stove and will soon be whisked…