Now that the world has somewhat opened up, I once again find myself with long stretches on the train, casting about for ways to amuse myself. Although I have a trusty little office at home and don’t have daily commutes to work, I do have frequent hours on the train to church and back, as well as to other social events, and since I don’t always manage to have a book at my fingertips (sometimes I run out of mass…
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…
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…
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,…
I was cruising around my Google drive, as I do from time to time, and came across this little document I had made that time Lyn and I hied ourselves off to Paris for the best week of my life. People love to criticize the inhabitants of places like Paris and New York and call them rude and unfriendly, but I have found plenty of wonderful humans in both those places. Maybe it’s all in what you’re looking for. But…
It’s been a languid and sultry couple of days in New York City, the kind where you move slowly, sipping ice water and blowing a fan on your bare toes while you smile and look professional from the shoulders up for your zoom calls. Usually I don’t care for hot weather, but I’ve kind of been soaking it in these days and relishing my well-deserved shower every night. And did I mention I’m showering in my very own shower these…
When my girls and I planned our little dashing trip to London last fall, I thought with secret longing of how close we would be to Oxford, but I didn’t mention it much because our trip was already very short and surely there was no way we could pack a second location in. But upon arrival, we discovered that most of us had the same Oxford itch, and really, it wasn’t very far by train, and frankly, how could we…
My decade began and ended with a miracle. Around the start of the decade I was living in Honduras, terribly burned out and sad from years of too much loneliness and a few too many griefs. I decided to ask God for the impossible, and asked Him to move us back home in the spring, and not only back to North Carolina, but back to our old house we had left there. This was ridiculous for a variety of reasons….
I won the lottery. I imagine almost everybody has, at one point or another, fantasized about what they would do if they won the lottery. I certainly have done so, building grand castles in the air of traveling with part of it and investing the rest and living on interest and being able to spend my life doing all the things I actually want to do that don’t make a living. Surely you’ve made plans for the day you’ll win…
Good evening, ya fine folks. I am perched on my bed as I type this, gingerly leaning against the wall and hoping against hope that my somewhat broken bed does not come crashing down off its wobbly pedestal. It has been known to do that, you know. I had my fine friend the Little Kumquat come visit me and first thing, as soon as she sat on the bed and leaned against the wall, SMASH, the whole operation came crashing…
A couple weeks I sat in a coffee shop feeling particularly homesick and forlorn and in need of adventure and decided to see what it would cost to go somewhere for the weekend, anywhere cheap. So I began browsing inexpensive flights and lo and behold, there was one for that very weekend to Charlotte. On a whim I snatched it up and spent the next few days of work just barely able to contain my excitement as I waited for…
“It’ll be fun!” they said. Here’s the thing. Up until now, I’ve considered myself a whole-hearted lover of flying. Part of the joy of going someplace was the getting there; flying was its own separate thing to be excited about in every adventure that called for it. Sure, sometimes you got a little airsick and sometimes your ears hurt and we all know airport food is overpriced, but it was still worth it for the joy of that moment when…