finding myself
right time, right place
What does it mean when a place calls to you? That it’s where you were born and have your roots, and where you always feel at home and need to return? That it’s where you met the most-loved person or people in your life and constantly feel that bond pulling you back? Or that it’s […]
leap year
So it seems that I find myself in what I like to call my second act. It wasn’t so much a conscious decision on my part but more as if I woke up one morning and realized hey, it’s time to find my next frontier (right after I find my reading glasses). I’ve spent my […]
wait up
Yes, I married a younger man. B. is nine months younger than me. Exactly. Forty weeks to the day. So, theoretically, he was conceived on the day I was born (of course I know it’s not an exact science, but work with me here). I like to think that I entered the world, looked around […]
sandcastles on the cape
Note: My essay (below) was originally published in Victoria Magazine in June of 2017; Father’s Day seems like a wonderful time to share it again. As a little girl, nothing seems quite as large as the ocean, and no hero quite as large as Daddy. For me, no joy seemed greater than summers shared with […]
amazing grays
Here’s the thing I’ve learned about getting older — it sort of sneaks up on you. Turning 30, 40, and even 50 really didn’t faze me all that much. Turning 60 was an oh-my-god moment, though (because there’s no way, by any stretch of the imagination, that 60 can literally be considered middle-aged — how […]
red my mind
While the line “blondes have more fun” may have sold countless home hair-color kits to women who longed to get in on the manufactured myth, it also managed to plant a seed of insecurity in those of us born to the blonde mantle — more fun than what? Because if we were having the maximum […]
she did not just say that
I was almost 35 years old the first time I ever said the f-word. Aloud, that is. Before that, I’d said it maybe a few times in my head (I was raised to believe that nice girls just did not talk that way, so even the thinking-it number is low), but it never actually came […]
charm school
Okay, raise your hand if you remember those old-school charm bracelets. To me they seemed the accessory of choice for those perfect, suburban TV moms of a past era — think June Cleaver of Leave it to Beaver fame — women who vacuumed in pearls and heels, who had dinner on the table each night […]
dangling earrings
I wrote this essay (edited here for space reasons) and had it published in the Los Angeles Times several years ago. In re-reading it now, I couldn’t help but want to share it because it’s so much a part of my creative heart. This is a story about letting go and letting life happen. About recognizing […]
rice on your head 