View all posts by Gina DeNicola

I miss those babies so much, but more now since we received some somber news a few weeks ago that one of their childhood friends died. She was only 22; the same age as my sweet Alison and she died trying to save someone else’s life doing CPR. I can’t even imagine what the family ...

As I stood in the middle of the older, but cute, tiny apartment, drenched in light and beautiful hardwood floors I was a bawling mess. All I could hear was “Mom, why are you crying?” You see Raymond moved into his new apartment over the weekend, and it will be the apartment he and Alyssa ...

I have a friend who has decided to take 2015 and volunteer her way through the United States. Stopping in each state and making sure she volunteers in each one. She works jobs in the towns she is volunteering to help support her quest. She inspired me every day that I worked with her with ...

  It was a Sunday Morning. I was sitting in bed drinking coffee and looking out the window while listening to my husband; Rob read a food review from a critic that once came to my bakery.  As usual, there were a million things going on out that window and this morning did not disappoint. ...

I walked past two bakeries on my way into my first acupuncture appointment; I stopped and took a deep breath.  The deep breath was for several reasons: First, the smell of freshly baked bread coming from the bakeries stopped me in my tracks.  It was comforting and familiar.  Second, I was apprehensive and wanted to ...

As I sit by the pool in sunny Nashville, my mind wanders back to Philadelphia.  Today my sister-in-law and brother are packing up their house in downtown Philadelphia and moving to Phoenix.  I’ve been texting with her all morning, convincing her it’s the right thing to do, it’s a new adventure, and she should be ...

  As I sit alone in the Press and Guest Locker room of the Philadelphia Eagles stadium, I am bored and tired.  The excitement of going back to work has long since faded, and I find myself, once again, homesick.  I need a haircut, and that is always the very first thing that triggers my ...

As I sat in the Firestone waiting room, I was overwhelmed with the smell of rubber and oil. It’s not an exciting place to be, even though they have tried to cheer it up, they have gotten it a bit wrong. They have taken away the counter and put these random round checkout kiosks in ...

As I sit in the back of the production office listening to words like “Teamsters”, “House Guys”, “Carpenter Unions”, “IA”, Decorator’s Unions; I was very glad that I was in the back of the room writing articles for my little blog.  The conversation made my head literally hurt. Any hanging that was one Union and ...

  Standing on the stairs waiting to get into my apartment building, two young twenty-something girls walked past me. They smelled like Coppertone and future with their flip-flops and cute bathing suit cover-ups. Their hair was long, and undoubtedly they used a product that made it look like perfectly effortless beach hair. I stood there ...

This morning as I sit on my balcony with my hot coffee and cool breeze in complete and utter comfort, the word “amends” was floating around my head. Not because I was on the 8th or 9th step of the 12-step program, but because Rob was having breakfast with someone who was, and Rob was ...

I will always pick a penny up when I see it because let’s face it, who doesn’t want good luck.  This act has, however, has resulted in pennies randomly scattered in pockets, the washing machine and all over my house.  I would pick pennies up even when I was a little girl.  I taught my kids ...

  A few weeks ago I saw a news story on Tess Holliday.  She was beautiful, happy, just signed a modeling contract and was a size 22.  Her genuine self-confidence shook me to my core.  The interviewer asked her a question about her health, and she had the perfect answer: Health is a personal thing.  ...

My daily check of Timehop revealed this quote from my Facebook status three years ago:”Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.”  That quote is from Thoreau, and I love it as much this morning as I did three years ago. Three years ago I was in culinary school on ...

    What happens long term when you hold a grudge?  Nothing good, I know, but do the people holding on tight to the grudge realize all they are missing?  I’m not a grudge holder, at least not with people I love.  People who I have no use for, like ex-husbands, I just assume they ...

I was having a conversation with an old friend the other day; it was about getting older and the things we’ve learned.  It got me thinking about turning 50 in a year or so and how I was excited for that to happen.  I know, my mother and her sisters would cringe at the thought ...

The other day, Alison and I were having a conversation about her final project for college.  She was writing a paper on her relationship with Rob.  We talked a little bit about stepfathers and how our relationships with them shaped our lives and the women we are today. Stepfather and real father were a term ...

I can’t write if I don’t run, and I hate running, but my self-imposed deadline of one blog post a week was looming on the horizon.  So I laced up my running shoes and headed out the door.   Two miles into my run it hit me, like it always does, A Woman of Contradiction Graduates.  ...

That was the text that had me hyperventilating at 7:00 in the morning.  I knew this day was coming for about a month, but never really expected it to get here.  My dear friend, also a bakery owner, said to me “will you come and teach us how to make croissants?”.  Before I even thought ...

Blessed according to the dictionary means:  “Made holy; consecrated.  A title preceding the name of a dead person considered to have led a holy life, especially a person formally beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.” Or from gotquestions.org it means:  “Statements of blessing are a wish for God to restore His favor on others or ...

While running downtown on a gorgeous Spring day, you expect to die a number of ways.  Cars being the number one guess, but there are other ways.  Crazed, hardcore runners, all but pushing you off the sidewalk into the aforementioned cars.  The pollen so thick, you come home choking and covered in yellow dust.  The ...

Things I Hate people making fun of  the underdog rain people telling me what to do cleaning the house running Things I Love the underdog rain people telling me what to do cleaning the house running  I had the idea for this post when someone posted something I found offensive on Facebook.  Their response was, ...

As a parent, you usually live your life with one goal in mind, the end. Preschool graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and then, the wedding; the End, finish line crossed.   You are semi-prepared for the “Empty Nest” syndrome to settle in when they leave for college or into their apartments, but ...