School’s out – forever?
My five-year-old son is about to graduate from preschool. It’s the same small preschool his older sister graduated from three years ago and the same one where I have been taking both children since they were two years old in toddler class. Seven years ago, when I first visited the preschool, I had no idea […]
The nest overfloweth
As I stood in the Culver City Petsmart, wanting to take home Buddy the green-cheeked conure, I tried to understand my own logic. He was certainly pretty, a small green parrot with a long red tail, a yellow and red chest, and hints of blue flight feathers on the underside of his wings. And he […]
No-longer-empty nest
Here’s a story I’ve been thinking about lately. If you know me you may know that my six-year-old dog Saki died a few days before Christmas. She’d been sick with glaucoma and skin problems, but she ended up dying of aggressive lymphoma. I have so many regrets that come down to feeling like I could […]
B.M. part two
So, here’s what I’ve learned about moving when you’re not so young anymore: it’s hellishly purgatorial for longer than you think it will be. And we only moved about a mile away from our last home. Seven months after the moving trucks left, I’m not so much unpacking boxes as still hanging family pictures, finding […]
The B.M. (big move)
Readers (hi Mom!): you may wonder why I’ve not written – again – in almost a year. It was a LONG time between the last post and the second to last post as well. So, I’ve had another one of those years. Last year it was the double-room-parent conundrum at my children’s two school. (That […]
Willow Witt Ranch
What does it say about life in Los Angeles that staying in a bare bones, one room cabin in Oregon with my entire family (all five of us) while we all suffered from a stomach virus – was SO RELAXING compared to my life this past year in the comfort of my own home! For […]
Round we go
Posting anything has been a challenge lately. We recently let go of our babysitter, and my husband has been unable to drive because of a chronic health issue. So I’m the driver-in-chief of our two children to their two different schools and have taken on a lot of new household responsibilities. Needless to say, my […]
RIP Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett
Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett both died within 5 miles of each other yesterday – Thursday, June 25, 2009 – in West Los Angeles. The only other time that I can remember two such celebrities dying within such a short period of time was in late August, 1997, when both Mother Teresa (in India) and […]
No license plate, no problem
I’ve been spending a lot of hours on the streets of West Los Angeles lately and noticing that lots of cars are without license plates. One car at my children’s school has been sporting the dealer-issued ad-in-lieu of license plate for around a year. The other day, driving north on Sepulveda, a sporty black Volvo […]
The Hybrid
I have had my trusty VW Passat V6 wagon for several years. I’m still proud of it. It’s an exponentially better ride than most of the other cars I’ve driven. My mother’s ’73 Plymouth Valiant comes to mind. The last time I saw that car was on a “Push Pull and Drag” TV ad in […]
