Posts Tagged ‘work life balance’
PUBLICATION PSYCHOSIS AND A PUPPY FIX
Writers keep bizarre schedules: some compose late at night, some early in the morning, some whenever the urge overwhelms them. I am a disciplined early riser–or should I say that my three Dalmatians are early risers who tromp all over me and my blankets until I get up and feed them at 6:45 a.m., just…
Read MoreLet’s Get Personal
I used to call these pesky ideas now running around in my head New Year’s “resolutions.” However, it seems there’s a better word for the goals we set when the calendar flips to January 1st. The writer and psychologist Diana Raab, whom I am lucky enough to count among my friends, has suggested that the…
Read MoreTo Understand And Be Understood
How many of us have friendships that span decades and still remain intact? From my childhood, I have only one such remaining–the eleven year old girl that I called my best friend during grammar school. While there was no such thing as a BFF at the time, the acronym captures our relationship most precisely. So,…
Read MoreA Chink In The Armor
Hope seemed out of the question. As we returned home from Long Island, where we had celebrated my grandson’s first birthday, we were mired in non-stop traffic when my cell phone rang. The call was from the dog sitter. While vying for a tennis ball thrown up high, Mac and Cody had collided mid-air, and…
Read MoreSandwiched Between Chaos And Delight
Our trip over President’s Day weekend to visit my son, daughter-in-law and six-month-old grandson did not begin auspiciously. Before we even arrived in New York, our brand-new dog sitter phoned to tell us that, while she was throwing the ball in the rec room for fetch–crazy Mac, (our youngest Dal), had crashed into the wine…
Read MoreCoast To Coast
Last week, I went back to California for the first time since we moved to Maryland in September. The Bay Area south of San Francisco remains unchanged: still beautiful with its sunlight and winter green hills; still frustrating with its traffic and congestion; still costly to live and wine and dine in. Nevertheless, as the…
Read MoreWearing My Soul On My Face
Who likes to have their picture taken? Movie stars? Celebrities? Egotists? I can think of only a handful who enjoy being captured by an objective eye in a permanent way. Many of us are shy around a camera, smiling too broadly or not enough, opening our eyes as if we’ve been poked, or squinting as…
Read MoreSatisfaction and Bliss
This week I am rejoicing! I have finally completed the first start-to-finish draft of my novel. Daydreams In The Dark has a beginning, a middle and an end–the bones of plot, character and theme are in place, the skin of the story drawn tight. Only the meaty details need to be shaped and added. The pages are…
Read MoreGone Snorkeling…ALOHA!
Okay, I have a confession to make: I really loathe buying a bathing suit. Consider first the ghastly green lighting in the department stores that illuminates every dimple of cellulite. And consider second the mirror that adds a good ten pounds to my sixty-two year old body, upon which gravity has definitely done its work.…
Read MoreGuilty Pleasures
So, it’s Thursday at 5:00 in the morning and I’m speeding along at eighty miles an hour, in the pitch black, to a burg called Vallejo, which is about an hour and a half from my house. I’m keeping watch in my rear view mirror for “CHIPies,” (California Highway Patrol), who will pull me over…
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