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“Courage, Nicholas,” I tell him, “You have what it takes.” “No worries,” I say to my student who forgot his online tutoring lesson. “Pas de probléme. I’ve had five seniors. I know what that looks like.” And I did and I do. He is banging out college apps and common apps and living the life of an insanely strapped and over tasked senior in high school. He was supposed to come online at 7, but… Continue reading
For the most part, Will has left his world intact. His room is tidy and tended, not stripped bare but definitely looking recently departed, with a burst of packaging and wrappers overflowing the wastebasket from his recent shopping – new underwear, deodorant, clothes they asked for on the packing list. The packing list crowns the heap, dutifully annotated and crossed out. Last laundry. Last essentials. Last imprint on the made bed, where he sat to… Continue reading
She had the last word, after all. Researching my paternal grandmother–my step-grandmother, actually, as my father’s mother died of breast cancer when I was only one–I came across the crowning glory of her life. For some women, it is children. Increasingly, I’m told, it will not be this way. Going forward. But it has been for me. I don’t speak for the other women in my family, particularly the ones who came before, but child… Continue reading
I am happy to report that the tricks and trades of the budget traveler still work out there, and I have discovered one more: the panini check. Like a coat check. But involving a left-over sandwich. Our story begins on day two. Sophie and I are safely arrived in Padua, Ellie’s university town. We’re jet lagged but we’re on our feet. Ellie has Tuesday mornings free (class at 12:30), so we enjoyed our first night… Continue reading
She’s standing there with a knife in her hands, shaking it at me she’s so angry. Tense moment #567 in the span of so many throughout this impossible situation, though most of them not involving weapons. “It doesn’t work that way! This is not the way the world WORKS! MOM! She is not only exasperated by the meddling mom (chronically meddling), she is visibly angry, the words furred and harsh as she tries to hold… Continue reading
December 2022 Got my holiday FOMO in high gear again this year, feeling sad and torn over the lovely holiday events and activities going on that we won’t attend. Too busy, too behind, too stressed, and too much dealing with the “extra curricular” of life to enjoy the seasonal fun. Facebook feeds it, of course, and of course I’m supposed to be wiser and more well-poised to enjoy the deeper meanings of the season, but… Continue reading
December 2024 I’ve been searching for the funny story. Pets, tents, holes, and house disrepair notwithstanding, the humor fodder is thin this year. Don’t get me wrong, there is much behind us. But not that you put in a Christmas letter. Nobody wants to read about the water heater going out a week before the holidays. Or the cooling fan kaput from deep in the fridge (ah, so that’s where all those mice were coming… Continue reading
I think I roasted the squash just for spite. Or a distraction—something else to gripe about, something to take her mind off the many things I hadn’t done right in the short time I was there. Too much tomato in the recipe. Not enough water in the soup. The recycling “system” botched. The coffee not made. The shower not squeegeed. Too much this. Not enough that. Goldilocks syndrome, minus the “just right.” And the consummate… Continue reading
It’s called the Burk Emporium for a reason. After near 30 years in the same house, two attics, three sheds, and one well-appointed garage, we have one of everything on the planet. If not, we can surely procure one for you. And this year—well, it’s been a year of stuff. For one, middle age has us surveying the landscape in newly wise ways. All the years of college move-ins and outs (with bonus pandemic extensions),… Continue reading
On the fifth floor of the Italian consulate building in Philadelphia, the AC has gone out. Someone has opened a window near the elevators, an odd choice on a hot day as it is a huge window, about waist high all the way to the enormous ceiling high overhead, and there is no screen. The heat and noise from the streets below clamor through the gaping hole, cooling nothing. And intensifying her worry. It as… Continue reading
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