There isn’t much to make you reevaluate all your choices and accomplishments and realize how very little you’ve done yet with your life like hitting another decade. From the wisdom of my upper twenties I scoffed at the thought of minding this birthday, but when it came around the bend, I found myself quailing with the best of them. It’s hard not to, when the next step is middle age and you haven’t yet reached many of the measures of success which culture holds up for you.
Before I moved here, when I spent many free hours devouring all the NYC information I could find, I often came across articles discussing how long you had to live here to actually count as a real New Yorker, or just what had to happen to you as a sort of christening before you could claim the title. Obviously, all these opinions are subjective, but ever a fan of lists, I have my own theories- my own sort of mental…
I know NYC is not everyone’s cup of tea. When I moved here a few years ago, plenty of people made that very clear by their incredulous comments or glances, but frankly, I’m glad it’s that way. Obviously the whole world cannot live in one place, so it’s just as well that not everyone wants to, even if I feel ever so lucky I get to be here. But since I am nothing if not helpful, if you are one…
Sometimes, there are no words. That’s how it feels when I consider Sunday, our first service back at church after sixteen months apart. Was it was only a dream, or was it the last sixteen months that were a bad dream from which I suddenly awoke? I find it a little hard to tell. If you’ve ever read “A Wrinkle In Time”, you might recall that in it, Madeleine L’Engle describes time as a fabric that can be wrinkled so…
I drive home from the church picnic at sunset, my arms slowly growing more strawberry-hued from my earlier game of croquet in the sun. The grass was far too long to play properly, but that didn’t stop us from having a jolly good game, filled with much good-natured ribbing. The burgers and meadow tea were sublime, and I found the potato salad filled with pickles that I like best on the potluck food line. After the meal, I watched the…
Hello there, how have you been? It’s been such a long time since we’ve chatted about books, so let’s fix that. I enjoy doing a recap of what I’ve been reading every year, rejoicing over my favorites and occasionally warning you of lemons so you can avoid them if you wish. I didn’t get around to doing this for 2020, for several reasons. First- I’ve had a year long case of the worst writer’s block. I heard recently that perhaps…
I feel uncertain which day I should celebrate my anniversary since it took me two days to move, but around two years ago, on the 8th and the 9th of March, I swam my way out of my old life and into this crazy adventure. And I really mean swam- it was a very soggy occasion as I said farewell to everyone I knew and set out for New York City. I remember that moment as if it was last…
Hello fellow citizens of this planet, and greetings from cold and snowy Queens. How have you been? Are the winter blues hitting you now that it’s February, which is arguably the longest month of the year? I sit amid my piles of slushy snow, looking at pictures of my friends in Florida, and toasting my feet on my radiator as I sift through bankruptcy claims for errors day after day. The toasting is necessary, because I’ve discovered recently that I…
One. The Bullfrog Opera, by The Okee Dokee Brothers. This one is just nonsensical enough to tickle my fancy. I mean, “We’ve got Broadway tickets to see a line of crickets, and the loons are playing Carnegie Hall…” Yes please. Not to mention, the woodwind woven through out is da bomb. Two. Be Kind to Yourself, by Andrew Peterson. For a long time, I didn’t get the Andrew Peterson fans. My friends kept going on about how much they loved…
I never had a white Christmas. One time in my life it snowed in North Carolina on Christmas day, and that particular year I spent the day driving to Michigan, where all the snow cheerfully melted upon my arrival. So this year I was brainstorming with a few girlfriends, and when one of us said, “Hey, let’s go to New England for Christmas!” the others said, “Yes, let’s”, because we’re good like that. We googled places that are nearly always…
Hello friends, Here’s the thing- a month ago or so I got to set foot in my beloved Brooklyn Tabernacle for the first time since March, as I’ve told you, oh, a dozen times or so. We went in little groups and recorded a choir song for the opening number of the virtual Christmas concert BT is putting on. I got to see a preview of the song this week, and guys, I was so impressed! I was expecting the…
When you mention New York City, several reactions tend to come up. First, you have the cynics who shudder at the thought of stepping foot in such a grimy concrete jungle and think it is where the worst of humanity collects to poison this fair country. On the other hand you have the romantics who have played tourist here and whose eyes sparkle with Rockefeller lights and stoplights; whose memories are threaded with thin crust pizza and yellow taxi cabs,…