The days have become weeks and the weeks almost months since I returned from Spain and that never never land feeling of long days and idle nights. Gone are the books consumed for breakfast and the glasses of wine for lunch. Certainly, the wasteland of summer vacation cannot be replicated day in and day out or surely that would grow old as well. Tin has started his new school where they are told to be…
I went to the endocrinologist this morning and everything was great until my physical exam where he felt a lump on my thyroid. “I’m not going to say it’s cancer, but we should have it checked.” Suddenly that lump felt bigger. Before I was called into his office, I was sitting in the waiting room and a woman across from me leaned in and said, “You look really great like that.” She thought I had…
I had a moment of panic last night that I haven’t experienced in a long time. But let me back up. Every day I have been walking Stella around the bayou and to City Park and it’s all been very well and good, and I’m super grateful for Stella and for having a dog get me back to my morning walks. Yet, every morning I am greeted by my past – both the view of…
A quote I heard recently: “We should be guided by our spirits not our plans.” Nine years after the great 2005 Federal Flood and where are we now? Wednesday night, I sat at a dinner table with one friend who is moving to Illinois and another who said she would look for work elsewhere. The tragedy cemented people to this city – apathy is helping us wither on the vine. My pal during the aftermath…
A friend stopped by for dinner last night as she was getting ready to leave on sabbatical. Before my new roommate had returned with the sushi, she asked, “So, are you dating?” I almost let out a laugh, as in, what kind of question is that? But then I had to remember, she dates. She usually has multiple lovers and so perhaps it is not a question out of the ordinary for her to ask.…
If you stop and notice you see how things fall apart but also how things come together. I keep having these ah ha moments where I’m looking for a long straw to fit my water glass and then all of a sudden I open a drawer and see an old plastic container I never use and lo and behold there is the long straw. Presto! On Monday, I hit my head not once but three…
Stella, my seven-month-old puppy who came into my life when she was seven weeks old is finally old enough to take on long walks. Today, we got all the way to the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park – a four-mile round trip. The park has always been my cathedral, my place of worship because I am in awe of all things that have roots and fly – and there is plenty of…
Was it Thoreau or Emerson who said the whole world exists in your own backyard? I can’t remember. I was thinking of this when I was sitting on the beach in Andalusia with the hills of Northern Africa not only visible across the ocean, but looking close enough to touch. And yet, some of my Spanish friends have never been. As crazy as that seems, when the 2005 Federal Flood hit New Orleans there were…
It was like this, two summers ago on the beach of Zahara de los Atunes, the winds from Africa picked up and caused the sand to pelt us all in the face and Tin, then three years old cried out to us all, “What happened??!!??” The winds are called Levante, they come from the east, where the sun rises, and are smokey hot and make the beach miserable when they are strong. No way to…
Despite the weather, summer is almost officially over with school starting this coming Monday. And of course, back to work for the adults. But I want to remember all of the summer moments – the slipper towel (as Tin called the towel I put so he wouldn’t slip when he washed off the sand on the terrace), the performances including fab introductions in Spanish and English by him and his two new gal friends who…