Our first family dog, Riley, was a psychotic piece of work. I paid an outrageous amount to an animal therapist who insisted that Riley was not the problem. Rather, it was my lack of leadership skills and my refusal to feed Riley a raw meat…
It is 5:30 am. I am watching my husband pack his suitcase, scrambling to make a 7am flight. For the past three years his work has taken him out of town more than half the time by my conservative estimate. People comment on how tough…
I was never the “good job” kind of Mom. My two sons didn’t get standing ovations for doing ordinary party tricks like learning to use the potty, eating broccoli or making their beds. Nope, I never subscribed to the theory that “good job” parenting would…
Unlike most people who start a committed relationship, I didn’t come with a past. If there had been an award in high school for “most likely to join a convent”, I would have won hands down. I wish I could report that undergrad was any…
Back in the day, you were doing pretty darn well to make it to the age of 25 what with the risk of being mauled by a saber-tooth tiger, bludgeoned to death in a gladiator fight or having a close encounter with the Black Death….
I nearly gagged this morning swallowing sour chocolate milk. I should have paid closer attention to the expiry date, but instead left it on the shelf for too long. Funny how relationships can be like that too. One day they’re sweet. The next day they’re…
Getting divorced just because you don’t love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do. This is the reason I love Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian-American actress. She is witty and provocative. She is also in her 97th year, and…
When parenting duties were being divvied up, I somehow drew the short straw. My husband John comes from strict Baptist stock, the kind of people who don’t talk about sex because it may lead to dancing, or worse, cards. By process of elimination, I was…
My sister and I were teenagers when our Dad fell in love with another woman, left our mother, and got re-married. I had not thought about this “other woman” for decades. When her marriage to my Dad vaporized so did my relationship with her. She…
My uncle Nick is a highly respected life actuary. Normally you would not want to get seated beside one at a dinner party (“so, you predict death for a living…FASCINATING!”). But Nick is a ton of fun. He can tell a joke like it’s nobody’s…