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 ...
Probably the worst show for me to watch is called “Time of Death” it documents people, in the final stages of their lives and how they and their family cope and plan for the inevitable. See, I’ve had this lump on my ankle the size of a golf ball and it has been there for ...
As I sat in the Panera Bread in Saratoga Springs waiting for my husband to finish his meeting, I realized I was going to be just fine. Perhaps it was the first cup of hot coffee I’ve had in weeks and the comfort that brings or maybe it was Adele singing in my ears, maybe ...
It was 3 o’clock in the morning, and I rolled over in bed to find Rob gone. I rolled over the other way to find all the lights on downstairs. I pulled out my earplugs and walked downstairs to find out why every light in the house was on; Rob was walking around with a ...
It’s snowing outside. It started snowing early. My insides were a bag of mixed emotions and the wind whipping through the window behind the couch I was sitting on didn’t really help my mood. As I sat there staring at the snow blowing and starting to cover the porch, I got a text. A text ...
The things I have learned from living in the frozen tundra of Albany in a little over a week are many. They are more than I expected to learn, and all of them are not surprising. I still hate the cold weather and have come up with a special curse word just for the cold. ...
We took a job that required relocating to New York only thing was we had no plans to actually 100% relocate. We had every intention of keeping our Nashville apartment and bouncing back and forth between both places. After all, how could I be expected to leave my chickens behind in Nashville? To begin with, ...
As we drove through Syracuse New York towards Albany the skies were cloudy, the remnants of a past snowstorm were still on the road and much to my surprise I had an overwhelming sense of calm. It was a surprise to me because if you know me even a little, you know I hate ...
Christmas, when you have small children, is a much different holiday than when you have adult children. When you throw into the mix of having a job that usually starts in a different state a few days after Christmas, you have to work hard to find that holiday feeling. This Christmas is the second year ...
You know all those silly quizzes on Facebook. The ones that sometimes you or your friends take. The ones you roll your eyes at when you see them pop on your page? Well, the other day I took one. It was the one where it tells you what personality you are from the movie Inside ...
“Meet me in Toronto,” he said. “I’ll come up from Michigan with the cast, and we will meet at the hotel,” he said. “Sure,” I said with my voice full of apprehension. I have only been out of the United States twice in my life. A trip to Toronto would make the third time and ...
For years and years, I looked for her, Elizabeth from 4th grade. I’ve written about her in my post “Amends” and with the advent of social media I could never find her. Every time I’d hear a story about bullying I saw her face and then mine. When I saw the movie Flatliners, I couldn’t ...
I’ve had this crazy secret goal for ten years. I consider it a secret, well up until now, because if I didn’t say it out loud, people wouldn’t know it or see me fail. Crazy because well, if you know me you know I hate to run. The goal? To run a marathon or 1/2 ...
Write every day, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. So at 1:58 I started to write. I was in a slump since I came back from Toronto and had written a lot, just not a lot of good stuff. I’m struggling with my life these days. I’m bored, and I don’t know what to ...
Like I’ve said before, I idolize the Author, Elizabeth Gilbert. I have learned so many things from her latest book Big Magic, but probably the biggest was that you needed fear to be creative, you just can’t let it drive the minivan. It has to come along, but it has to sit in the back seat, with ...
We were watching Public Morals on television last week, and one of the characters was sitting on the tub in her teeny tiny apartment, crying because she felt trapped. She was genuinely sad. The Gina of the past could 100% relate. The present day Gina isn’t sad anymore. Even though I am constantly in search ...
I look for inspiration everywhere, and often I get it from Facebook. Sometimes all it takes is a quote from Gandhi or Julia Child, but it will usually set the wheels in motion. Yesterday it was from the Author Elizabeth Gilbert; I have become slightly obsessed with her these last few weeks and for good ...
Writer’s block I’m sure for the experienced writer is hard, but for the inexperienced writer like me, it’s terrifying. I have written 62 posts and never once have I had a hard time putting the words down on paper. I usually have 3 or 4 posts written and stacked just waiting for their turn ...
As I sat in the back of the theater watching life-sized chipmunks run around on stage, in a different country I started to yawn. I was tired because I woke up out of a sound sleep at 1:40 am with an idea. I tried to tell that idea it was a ridiculous time to be ...
As I sat in my apartment the Monday morning after my son’s wedding, I practiced “Just Being.” Rob, my husband, was out of town; my parents were still at their hotel, and I was 100% completely alone. I sat there on my couch, no television, no radio, nothing to distract me but my thoughts ...
A blank page can be the scariest thing out there for a writer, but it can also be the most exciting. As I sat staring at the empty page, I wondered, wondered if I had anything new to say. I felt like I had written all that was in my head. The bakery ...
She said yes and just like that, Sweet Baby Raymond became a man. When you have kids, you are not provided an instruction manual. So, as a parent, you are fundamentally unprepared for any significant milestones in that sweet baby’s life. You have no idea what to do with that baby the second you walk ...
