PET PEEVES Here are some things that bug me, and I felt the need to express myself before it makes me all the way crazy.  Currently I’m only half crazy. I went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning last week.  I had forgotten you need cash for the parking fees – CASH ONLY it says everywhere except when you’re at home and you’ve forgotten they only take cash. I want to mention how bloody hot it was, too.  I left the dental office, and I’m not sure how much I like this new dentist.  Our old dentist was kind of stodgy, but he … Continue reading Pet Peeves

I’ve debated and debated, with myself mostly, about whether to post this; that I should just let it go, but I don’t think another voice can hurt any more than we’ve already been hurt.  And I frankly don’t care what others think or believe.  This essay will most likely only reach a few eyes anyway. To say I was devasted and disappointed by the results of this election is a colossal understatement. Perhaps even more devastated was my 18-year-old granddaughter, who sobbed throughout the night, knowing her rights as a woman were crushed; not sure if they’d ever be rectified.  She voted for … Continue reading Was there a recent election?

Thus begins my 20-minute Write Challenge. (I promised myself I would do this every day.  I’ve done it twice, two weeks apart.) As I lay in bed at night, I have many stories running through my head.  They seem to be gone in the morning. I’ve noticed people are not reacting as much to my blog.  I think there are complications with the site.  Is that what I’m blaming it on?  Or is it because I’ve only posted three stories in the last six months. Maybe I should face the fact that they’re just not interested any more.  Plus the fact that WordPress has been difficult … Continue reading Thus begins (and ends) my twenty-minute Write

As I lay in bed at night, I have many stories running through my head.  They seem to be gone in the morning. I’ve noticed people are not reacting as much to my blog.  I think there are complications with the site.  Maybe I should face the fact that they’re just not interested.  Plus the fact that WordPress has been difficult to navigate lately.  I’ll tell it to “publish” but it doesn’t. I’m supposed to post something else and then tell WordPress what happens when I hit the “publish” button. But enough of that.  I have tried to figure out what … whoops, my phone dinged, … Continue reading Thus begins my 20-minute write, which I promised myself I would do every day.  

I wrote the following essay a couple of weeks ago just to gather my thoughts, trying to figure out how I would endure or survive another Trump presidency.   I am a different person this week now that we have Kamala Harris running for president and knowing what a bright, decent, caring person she is, and  Joe Biden’s speech last night about his decision was so moving.   How can you look at Donald Trump and not see the difference in the two men?  To me it is baffling. July 15, approximately: I am sad, and I have been for a while, but today … Continue reading July 25, 2024

I was only 16 or 17 when I applied for a spate of “real” jobs – those other than babysitting and cleaning the neighbor’s house (I made $10 for cleaning that pigsty).  I cleaned our house, too, but I didn’t get paid for that.  Our parents figured we owed them.  Now I think they were right. I tried the very posh (for Ontario) department store downtown, but my rich friend, Jane, got that job because her family did most of their shopping there.  We could not afford it. I tried the Library, which I would have loved, but they didn’t want me and didn’t care … Continue reading Gemmel’s Drugstore – 1960

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The man sitting across from me on the train from Paris to Copenhagen was French. He was glaring at me with real hatred in his eyes and slapping my knees. “You Americans are shit.” The four other people in our train compartment were at first nervously trying to ignore my situation, except for Barbara, one of my two traveling companions. “Stop looking at him!”  It was a difficult order since he and I were knee to knee in the small compartment, and after all, he was slapping my knees. Although the French men we had met so far were by turn audacious … Continue reading European Vacation 1964

All the current talk about the Russians and V. Putin got me thinking about my First European Vacation, circa 1964.  underlined because I already wrote a story with that title and promised more to come, which, in my usual fashion, did not happen. I, and my two traveling companions, Marilyn and Barbara, found ourselves “stuck” in Copenhagen in the Absalom Hotel.  I had to put the hotel name in boldface because I can’t believe I remember the name of it.  I mention this because it reminds me of my mother’s memory. When I traveled to Italy in 1997, my mother … Continue reading The Russians

March 29, 2023 Officially not until tomorrow, but… Now that I’m almost 80, I find myself thinking of death more, imagining scenarios wherein I die, usually in a sloppy way. For example, I’m taking the trash out, stumble on the steps and crash on the concrete.  I imagine this kind of thing every day. Maybe I’m crossing the street at Hayvenhurst and Victory to go to the park, or even walking into the grocery store through the parking lot and I get hit by a car! As you know, we have oodles of maniacal drivers in the Los Angeles area.  They’re getting faster and … Continue reading On Being Eighty