Our first house was a somewhat dilapidated antique outside of Boston. It had a “city yard” – about a quarter acre of rutted dirt and weeds. My husband Mario transformed it into an adorable garden and play area, complete with extensive stonework, including a patio and stone wall.
I take credit for none of it. He lifted all those rocks and pavers himself. Italians are known for their wonderful stonework. I think he got that gene. He also got the Italian “green thumb” gene.
My daughter driving her car on the stone patio, 1997ish
About 5 years later, my son on the same patio with the stonewall behind him
The patio was the perfect size for toddlers and their large plastic toys. I could watch them from my kitchen window.
Our late cat Kimba the White Lion on the stone wall
My husband grew all of these vegetables himself in that tiny yard one summer.
My biggest challenge in the next nine months is our national challenge: to try to make sure Donald Trump does not get re-elected President of the United States. If overturning Roe v Wade and staging a coup d’état was not enough to convince you that a second Trump term would be truly disastrous for both the United States and the world, then please get up to speed.
This is not a time to be shy about your political views or to sit on the sidelines and see what happens. It’s a Code Red, people. The simple act of handwriting postcards to likely voters in key districts has proven highly effective in the last two election cycles.
Over the next nine months I’ll be volunteering with Vote Foward and my local Indivisible group, along with a bunch of folks from my church.
Yes, Joe Biden is too old to be President. But the likely alternative, a second Trump term, would “instantly plunge the country into a constitutional crisis more terrible than anything seen since the Civil War.”
I don’t want to wake up on Wednesday, November 6th regretting that I didn’t do more.
Some church friends and me mailing our last batch of letters before the 2022 midterm elections
Fight mom on letting you have your ears pierced at the mall. Her ancient doctor is going to make yours uneven. Also, one hole in each ear is plenty! (You’re going to regret those extra piercings.) You were right to avoid tattoos.
Even in ideal circumstances, air travel is “boring” at best. You arrive at the airport hours early to sit and wait to be herded onto a thin metal tube (uncomfortably close to scores of strangers—some with pets), only to wait even longer (as a strapped-in captive) to be launched into the sky for an undetermined length of time, during which you’ll definitely have to pee.
Throw in a snowstorm, a pandemic, turbulence, a baby, a maintenance delay, or God forbid – a connecting flight, and you’re really just asking for trouble. Heading to the airport soon. Wish me luck.
An animal’s tail poking through to my seat on a recent flight. De-icing the wings: a familiar sight to many New Englanders Boring can be beautiful
I’m going to interpret the word “drink” in this prompt to mean “cocktail,” because nobody wants to read about how much I like water or Diet Coke, and I’ve already posted about my love of coffee and white wine.
When it comes to mixed drinks, I’m a vodka person. During the pandemic lockdown, I perfected my Cosmopolitan (Cosmo) recipe. Here it is:
1.5 oz Absolut Citron Vodka
1 oz Cointreau
1.5 oz unsweetened cranberry juice
Fresh squeezed juice of half a lime
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. After shaking, pour into chilled martini glass with lime wedge.
It’s not crazy strong, which I like. It’s especially good in summer. I keep a martini glass and a bottle of vodka in my freezer at all times.
I love my family and enjoy being with them. And friends are so important too. I try to be a good friend.
But this question is making me think of people writ large. Why do I gravitate to some more than others?
There’s a group of about 100 people I see on a weekly basis (my fellow UU churchgoers), about 20 of whom I see twice a week (the choir members), and I do like being around some more than others. My favorites are the people who are engaging (they talk but also listen); smart but relatable (they go beyond small talk, but don’t lecture); funny but self-aware (they’ll make you laugh, but aren’t trying to be stand-up comics); and they smell good. The last one seems shallow, but honestly, some people smell better than others and I prefer being around the good smellers. Aging seems to contribute to some so-so smelling people, but we’ve got plenty of good smelling seniors, so that’s not a great excuse. Scent matters.
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.
My feet don’t match. The women on both sides of my family have severe bunions. My genes, combined with too many pairs of pointy shoes in the 80s, led to me develop large, painful bunions by the time I was 25.
One day, in my mid-twenties, I had to cut short a walk home from work and hop on the T because my feet hurt so badly. That was it. I loved walking in Boston and I decided this was no way to live. I made the decision to go under the knife and get the worse bunion removed surgically (my left one). I figured I’d go back and get the other one done later.
Well, the pain was SO bad after the surgery, I never went back and got the right foot done. (I was in a big surgical boot for 6 months and then I had to have a screw removed from my newly straightened big toe.)
In the grand scheme of things, a bunion is pretty minor, but my right foot still causes me a lot of pain, especially when wearing any kind of a dress shoe. When I have to get dressed up for something, the dilemma is always the shoes. What shoes could I possibly wear with this outfit that won’t hurt? There really are no comfortable dress shoes for me.
Consequently, I have worn flip-flops to more occasions than I care to remember. I have gold ones, silver ones, sparkly ones, beaded ones, leather ones, plus the usual plastic/foam ones. Flip-flops are really the only shoes that don’t hurt at all.
So, here’s to my numerous pairs of flip-flops. They don’t hide my ugly bunion from the world, but at least they showcase a nice pedicure.
A fancy pedicure I got once. Also, I just discovered there’s a flip-flop emoji 🩴
My dear friend Susan made my 50th birthday special. (She makes every occasion special.) Not only did she help me plan a dinner in a restaurant, but she also invited my guests back to her home afterwards. She and her lovely daughter created thoughtful touches like chocolate covered strawberries, a sign, and birthday confetti. I really felt special!
And then, on top of that, Susan gave me my first Apple Watch. A very generous and EXCITING gift! It was June 2015 and Apple had just come out with watches that spring. I remember they seemed so weird and futuristic at the time. I really didn’t understand what they were or how they worked, but it was so cool to have one of my own! It was silver with a white sport band. I’m sure I never would’ve bought one for myself (or I would’ve taken many more years to try one).
It was a very exciting gift and I ended up loving Apple Watches. I’ve upgraded to new models several times. As I’ve mentioned, I’m a good candidate for digital health products. I’m motivated to “close my rings” daily and I like getting the colorful little “medals” for special challenges. I was thrilled when Apple came out with the waterproof version, so I could wear it in the pool and get “credit.”
So, not only was it a generous and thoughtful gift, but I truly believe it’s helped me stay healthy in my fifties.
Thanks Susan. I love you!
My 50th birthday sign in Susan’s apartment Special touches by Susan 💕
Budgeting is hard. In the old days, when we first bought a house and got a mortgage, there was no extra money at all. We already had one child. My husband got a second job delivering newspapers at the crack of dawn to make ends meet. When we moved again, we had two kids and the expenses were even higher, so I went back to work. In the old days, when we felt like we were low on money, the solution was always to work more.
Now that we’re empty nesters, I am able to budget for optional stuff like travel. Typically, I make a list of expenses on the notepad in my iPhone. I plan for the big stuff (airfare, hotel, car rental), book it (so I know what it’ll really cost), and then determine how much I feel comfortable spending on other stuff (dinners, excursions, etc). Now that I’m older, I’m prioritizing experiences over stuff.
For example, when we went to Paris, we had dinner IN the Eiffel Tower. It was very expensive, but it was amazing! It was such a special setting and the food was delicious. We sat next to some Germans and a young American couple from the Bronx who were clearly splurging too. We had a lot of fun chatting with them and it was surreal to be eating in the actual Eiffel Tower. I could’ve purchased a nice French designer bag for the same price, but this was so much better.
Now, when I watch the Paris Olympics this summer, I’ll be thinking of that night whenever they show the Eiffel Tower.
We got lucky. Our table was right next to the windows. And yes, of course we sprung for the €25 souvenir photo.
One thing that makes me feel patriotic is beautiful, sweeping American vistas. I have been known to break out singing “America, the Beautiful” in public. I think it should be our national anthem. The words are better than the “Star Spangled Banner.” And most people can sing it. It’s not as hard.
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountains majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
I’m also a big fan of “This Land is your Land.” I can – and will – join in singing harmony whenever I hear it.
This land is your land, and this land is my land From California to the New York island, From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters; This land was made for you and me.
Here’s the Woody Guthrie original version from 1940.
Other countries have spectacular scenery too, but ours is so vast and varied—from sea to shining sea.
🎵 🇺🇸 🎶
Maui, Hawaii, 1993San Francisco Bay, California, 2012Palm Springs, California, 2010The incredibly blue Lake Tahoe, California, 2012Moonrise, Lake Tahoe, California, 2012Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, 2009Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 2009The hallowed ground of Gettysburg National Park, Pennsylvania, 2017Taughannock Falls State Park, Trumansburg, New York, 2022Lake Cayuga, Ithaca, New York, 2021Saratoga Springs, New York, 2019The Green Mountains, Stowe, Vermont, 2014The White Mountains, Bartlett, New Hampshire, 2013The rocky coast of Maine, Kennebunkport, 2022Nantucket, Massachusetts, 2007Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts, 2023The beach border of Westport, Massachusetts and Little Compton, Rhode Island, 2006Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, 2023. This is the 1970 America’s Cup contender Heritage.Watch Hill, Westerly, Rhode Island, 2021The Outer Banks, North Carolina, 2003Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 2009Delray Beach Florida, 2021Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 2014The aquamarine Gulf of Mexico in Longboat Key, Florida, 2022
LAST ONE: the iconic Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2023. Pictures don’t really do it justice. There’s a quiet awe to the place that perhaps this video captures just a tiny bit.
If you made it to the end of this post, THANK YOU for looking at all my pics. I loved taking them.
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