October 10 was the day that had my three other siblings and me scrambling for airline tickets. It was the date of my baby sister’s double mastectomy, and we were not going to let her go at it without her loud siblings. It would be the first time we would all be in the same ...
I am brave damn it! After all, I have two bracelets that say I am, I have people tell me I am all the time, I have kids who believe me to be brave, but the morning I had to climb onto the shuttle bus I wasn’t so sure that was the case. However, I climbed ...
As I sat in the airport waiting for my connecting flight, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. Mexico is my final destination with my baby sister. I took a deep breath because that’s what they tell you to do to relax. I was sitting right next to a pizza place, and all ...
A few months ago I finally broke down and told my mother I didn’t believe in God. Her, almost predictable answer was, “Yes you do Gina.” But I don’t, I’m not sure I even believe in the power of prayer. Here’s why. Yesterday my baby sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last week my mother ...
As I sat on the balcony of my apartment looking at the downtown skyline and the sunrise, I realized it had been almost two years to the day when I closed the doors to my little bakery. In those days that I owned the bakery, I was up hours before the sun even peeked its ...
I woke up this morning all alone in the hotel, and I realized I was living a life most people would envy. I was at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut because my husband went back to work touring. Because I have grown kids, I can pick up at a moments notice and follow him to any ...
If you read my blog or if you know me, you know I have major body image issues. I’ve never been confident with my body and never believed people when they would tell me I was pretty. I have never been comfortable with just me. Almost every day my husband would tell me that I ...
Tomorrow I will climb in a rental car with my daughter and her boyfriend, my son and his wife and we will drive to the ocean. This will be the first vacation I’ve taken with the kids since they were little. This will be the first vacation I have ever taken to the ocean since ...
This morning I woke up feeling 100 years old, every bone was creaking and hurt, for no real reason. I have noticed that when you are almost 50, it’s harder just to jump right out of bed without something hurting. As waddled my way to the French press to make some coffee to jump start ...
I don’t really have a post today with the tragedy that is Orlando; I just don’t think I have anything meaningful to say. It’s all just too sad, this world full of anger and hate. Many of my friends are gay, and I couldn’t imagine my life without being able to see the amazing things ...
I was in Vancouver and had just figured out my hotel didn’t have a restaurant that served breakfast. But more importantly, it didn’t serve coffee, which was a problem for me…A HUGE problem. So I pulled up the map and started looking for the closest place I could walk to so I could stop the ...
I had gotten to the airport too early for my flight, and as I was sitting at my gate with my coffee in my hand, I realized I was too tired to open my laptop or even look at my phone. This got me thinking; I wondered how many things we miss while we are ...
I belong to a couple of private Facebook groups. Most are about blogging, but some are not and because I’m seriously getting tired of social media, I started to clean my Facebook house. See, I almost left one of those private Facebook groups that touts itself to be a space where women can say what ...
My morning ritual is pretty much the same when I’m home, the only thing that will vary is whether or not the bed gets made. I wake up, brush my teeth, wash my face, get dressed, and make coffee. Once the coffee is finished, depending on the weather, I will either sit on the ...
I write because sometimes I have things to say, and I can’t get someone to sit and listen to me spew 700 words at their face. They know I will barely stop to breathe, let alone let them get a word in edgewise. Usually, if I get interrupted I lose my train of thought, and ...
It has been just about 304 days since I watched the last Marvel Experience dome get packed into a truck, packed our little Fiat up for the last time (or so I thought) and my husband and I drove back to Nashville. I was grateful to be off my feet because this final run of ...
If we were having Coffee. If we were having coffee, we would meet up at my favorite place, order our coffees and sit down at one of the long community tables. I would look into your eyes, take a deep breath and hold back the tears. You’d say, “talk to me” because you are my ...
All these quizzes on Facebook make me a little nutty. I have been as guilty as the next when it comes to taking quizzes like “what spice are you” or “what Disney character are you” and “what do your fingers say about you”. I wonder if Donald Trump took that last one. But this ...
As I lay in bed staring at the skyline of downtown Nashville for the last time, I was sad; just plain sad. As I started to fall asleep, I let my mantra repeat itself in my head “It will be fine, I will be fine” over and over, my version of counting sheep. I woke ...
I should have been packing, we were, after all leaving in four days and my apartment looked exactly the same as it always did. I loved my apartment in Nashville with the view of the world’s most incredible sunsets, so understandably so, I was procrastinating in the most spectacular way. I was sitting on my ...
We were driving from Albany to Nashville, and it was my turn to drive. As I was going 80 mph down Route 81, when my cell phone rang, and I looked down and saw it was my doctors office. I hesitated for a minute before I picked it up and said “Hello.” The voice on ...
We were in Albany for a week, when I told Alison we would be home for the weekend; her response surprised me. She said “good” and all I heard was relief and excitement. Now, I pretty much dismissed that as a fluke because I have raised a ridiculously independent woman, but then Raymond sent me ...
I was sitting on the couch in the rental house in Albany, trying desperately to stay warm with a hot cup of tea and thinking about my little teaching gig last week. I had remembered the night before I was to teach three very excited girls how to make quiche, pie crust, cinnamon buns, and croissants. ...
This post is tough for me to write. It is a complete departure from what I usually write, and it’s bearing my true self more than I have ever before, so please be kind and bear with me as I write these really hard words. A little over a year ago, I was on the ...
