What Makes Me Laugh

I used to say things like, “I could never live anywhere that didn’t have the four seasons.” Meaning snow, of course. The older I get, the more I hope to never say never, because right now I feel like I could live somewhere without the four seasons, very easily. Yes, I ski. Yes, I get [...]

I can’t even type the word “tradition” now without hearing the song from Fiddler on the Roof  and wanting to follow the first with another, louder, “Tradition!” Last weekend I traveled to Canada for the second annual mother-daughter get-together over the Martin Luther King Jr. long weekend. This year’s entertainment highlight was an Off-Broadway production of Fiddler [...]

Peaches is currently unhappy with me. I’ve been traveling a lot. Out of town for a wedding, for work, and now for a family get-together, she’s been lucky to get any quality time out of me this month. Doug has had to fill in, waving cat toys in front of her and Cocoa uselessly, getting [...]

Word to the Wise: Don’t drink rum, then champagne, and then beer unless you want to end up singing both the Doxology and every lyric of Jon Bon Jovi’s greatest hits in one night. Not that the singing wasn’t enjoyable, but the morning after hurt me bad. I think it was the champagne. The day [...]

I’m leaving for Tennessee tomorrow for what may be my final appearance ever as a bridesmaid or bridesmatron (I know, you’re drying your eyes right now, aren’t you?). I expect to experience both culture and culture shock in the South, and hope I don’t get lost (I’m getting a handy GPS unit for my car just [...]

About 10 years ago I sent an e-mail to a group of friends from college asking them all for a list of the best books they had read that year. I did it to reconnect with friends who share a common interest (most of us were English Majors) and because I have trouble finding new [...]

Sleighbells Ring. Are you listening? In the Lane. Snow is glistening. Personally, my favorite Christmas Carol is “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” It just says so much about a child’s mental anguish, doesn’t it? No toys, just my teeth please. Plus, you get to sing with a lisp, and who [...]

My mother had three cures for all of my childhood illnesses. I either opened up for antibiotics, downed pepto bismol, or rubbed Vick’s vaporub (otherwise known as mentholatum ointment) on my chest if I was sick. If those didn’t work, the threat of washing massive amounts of dishes seemed to do the trick. At the [...]

Day 3 of the Vegas Adventure 5:15 a.m. I’m not an early morning runner. If I had my druthers, I’d run mid-morning every day. I’d get up about 8:30, run about 9:00, shower and be to work about 10:30. But this is not my life, so I usually run over my lunch break or after [...]

6:20 a.m. Worry Wart Day two of the Vegas adventure started at 6:20 a.m. with a more-than-slightly hungover me waking to the alarm of a text message. You should just lay there, my body said. But my brain had different ideas, so I fumbled for the phone and opened it under the covers to read [...]