The implications of the 50th birthday are hard to ignore and difficult to embrace. One by one friends are starting to undergo joint replacements and drop out of my tennis and paddle tennis groups to pursue more forgiving sports like golf. I have been lucky to avoid any obvious physical limitations as I chug my…
Read MoreI have concluded that the first step in facing an irrational feel is to go to the internet. You not only have immediate knowledge – the universal antidote to fear – but you will also have easy access to others who have embraced your fear, turned it into a sustaining passion and their life’s work.…
Read MoreWe have now almost completed a full year at our new home on the Middlefork prairie. One of the true pleasures is a greater appreciation of the year’s cycles. The movement of the setting sun across the horizon and the waves of migrating birds were both anticipated and welcomed. Our seasonal infestation of ticks, however,…
Read MoreAs a child, I was a reader, voraciously consuming books like the Boxcar children, or the adventure series by Enid Blyton (Sea of Adventure, Circus of Adventure, etc.). Once I had run through all of these, I would save up my allowance and go to the Surprise Shop and buy a new Hardy Boy mystery. …
Read MoreWhen I was a teenager in the 1960s, an invitation to the Riverview Ramble was most coveted. This was some sort of charity fundraiser, and a ticket allowed you unlimited access to all of the attractions at the Riverview Amusement Park, located along the Chicago River. A group of hardy parents would load the kids…
Read MoreI remember the day distinctly, it was the mid sixties and I was standing in the girls locker room with my shirt unbuttoned just enough to reveal (to anyone who might want to notice) that I was wearing my first training bra. The gleeful shouts of my classmates echoed amongst the metallic clanking of the…
Read MoreA prior post considered the cultural significance of the visible bra apparati, so I suppose that it should not be a total surprise that my mind wandered south and started to ruminate on underdrawers, and specifically consider the social messages sent by either conventional underwear, the thong or a visible crack. This was in part prompted…
Read MoreAbout 25 years ago, the entire United States appeared to be caught up in King Tut mania, and Chicago was no different. The Art Institute of Chicago was host to a traveling Tut exhibit, and the lines stretched around the block, full of people anxious to see the precious artifacts. My husband had been lucky…
Read MoreLike many others in my peer group who first started typing on a manual typewriter, I have had an ambivalent love/mostly hate relationship with computers from the get go – continually feeling intimidated and frustrated with impenetrable jargon that requires a call to India to get a computer up and running, a new standard of…
Read MoreChapter 1. In 2008, a Cubs road game scheduled for Houston got rescheduled in Milwaukee due to Hurricane Ike pounding the Texas coast. Therefore on a beautiful early fall afternoon, Nick and I spontaneously decided to breeze up to Brewer’s field rather than trying to slog our way through traffic to the friendly confines of…
Read More