My Life Is Good

My Life Is Good
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 ...

Put Down Your Phone.

Put Down Your Phone.
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’m A Good Person, Damn It!

I’m A Good Person, Damn It!
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 ...

Comparison is the thief of all happiness

Comparison is the thief of all happiness
  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

I Write Because
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 ...

304 Days Since I’ve Had A Paying Job

304 Days Since I’ve Had A Paying Job
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.
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 ...

Who Am I?

Who Am I?
  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 ...

Mantras, Sometimes They Work.

Mantras, Sometimes They Work.
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 ...

She Is Fragile, But She Is A Rock.

She Is Fragile, But She Is A Rock.
  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 ...

The Call Every Woman Dreads.

29. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 4
The Call Every Woman Dreads.
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 ...

The Nest Can’t Always Be Full.

22. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 0
The Nest Can’t Always Be Full.
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 ...

Teaching, Kindness And Common Sense.

15. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 1
Teaching, Kindness And Common Sense.
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. ...

The Hardest Words I Have Ever Written.

10. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 6
The Hardest Words I Have Ever Written.
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 ...

Those Small Fleeting Moments

08. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 0
Those Small Fleeting Moments
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 ...

I Will Be Fine

01. February 2016 Gina DeNicola 0
I Will Be Fine
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 ...

Where In The World is Jerry

Where In The World is Jerry
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 ...

One Little Text.

One Little Text.
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 ...

Things Albany Has Taught Me.

Things Albany Has Taught Me.
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. ...

The Happy Cappuccino.

The Happy Cappuccino.
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, ...

Albany NY, Snow And Rented Houses.

Albany NY, Snow And Rented Houses.
  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 ...

Holiday Spirit.

28. December 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Holiday Spirit.
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 ...

Joy???

14. December 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Joy???
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.

07. December 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Meet Me In Toronto.
“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 ...

Apology Accepted.

30. November 2015 Gina DeNicola 0
Apology Accepted.
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 ...