Books have always been my escape. As a hearing impaired child, and now as a hearing impaired adults, books are the one place where I’m never out of the loop. Everyday conversation is tiring because I expend so much energy just listening and processing everything I’m hearing, and making up for what I can’t hear. …
Communication is so easy and immediate these days. Texting, tweeting, facebooking. Who needs a landline anymore, or regular old snail mail? Even email seems quaint! When my husband left for Texas, he suggested that we email each other back and forth, in addition to texting. It made sense– we could share so much more in …
On my pink two-wheeler, I coast down a steep ramp off an overpass, ahead of my family. Flying down, and picking up speed, I’m gripped by both thrill and fear. What happens at the bottom? Things are moving fast, the leafy trees are green blurs. I find myself on the ground, with both knees opened and blood …
Thrilling: A Series of Vignettes Inspired by Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes Read More »
Did you see that article a few weeks back about how deaf people suffer from fatigue? How about all those hours spent processing what you are hearing, and doing cognitive gymnastics to make deductions multiple times in a single conversation, is just flat out tiring? As an adult, this is most certainly true, and it …
Appear? Or maybe not. Anxiety is a funny creature. A small incident gathers more and more strength, and takes on a life of it’s own, until it becomes a full-blown anxiety that governs even aspects of your life that seem to have no relationship to the anxiety-inducing situation. I have weather-related driving anxiety. I’ve somehow …
{This is an excerpt of a post I published in May of 2012, after my grandfather passed away. I wrote it a month before he died.) I began visiting him at the rehab facility, with trepidation. I am not an “old people” person. I’m afraid of offending their sensibilities. I worry about not being able …
Since Alice was born, we have lived in three different communities, each one distinctly different from the rest. She was born in New York City, and we lived in Riverdale, a heavily Jewish but still diverse section of the Bronx, along the Hudson River. When I first moved to Riverdale, I was dating my future …
I’m surprisingly old-fashioned and big on tradition. The recent trend of remaking classic movies is driving me bananas, quite frankly. I’m disappointed in Hollywood’s lack of creativity! I grew up with the Gene Wilder version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Needless to say, I only needed to watch a few minutes of the newer …
My great-uncle Al was a packrat and a copious and mostly accurate notetaker. After his death, my mother uncovered boxes of photos and documents that Uncle Al kept all his life, along with a mystery! It seems that when my great-grandfather Naif emigrated to this country, he left behind a wife (and children?) in Lebanon. …
I am the mother of a three year old. A very THREE three year old. Two wasn’t so bad and Stella is a pretty sweet kid as far as kids go but man oh man, three has been kicking my tush. The temper, the impatience, the whining…you get it. I know you parents out there …