I’ve left NaBloPoMo in the dust, as you can see. It’s flailing on the road, baking in the heat. Sorry, dear. Meanwhile, the lovely Petya has tagged me for a meme. I don’t know that I’ve ever participated in a meme before, except maybe way back when, during the heady days of Friday Five (most [...]

Learn the rules before you break them.
This was taught to me by my high school art teacher. I think about it almost every day. It may be close to something I would call my own personal mantra. The key to how I live my life.
What’s yours?

I somehow got it in me that I needed a pair of clogs, but now that I have them, I haven’t the faintest idea of what to wear with them.
Do any of you fashionable ladies wear clogs regularly? With what? I’d love to see some inspiring pictures!
(For what it’s worth, I’ve got the simple black [...]

Next to an article in this week’s New Yorker about the digitization of books there is an ad for the European Beret. You know the one. I stopped reading the article and gazed at the beret model. Black, navy, brown, red, camel, or gray? I thought. This simple array of colors comforted me. I thought [...]

Having my rockstar friend Sarah tattoo a lightning bolt on my left middle finger with India ink and a needle in someone’s living room in Floral Park.
Briefly and bewilderingly dating a boy who lived 130 miles away because he liked the Swirlies and wore Chuck Taylors, then breaking up with him in his car, [...]

The doorbell rang at seven; we knew they were not lost. We ate spaghetti with garlic and broccoli, a pear martini, a bottle of Zinfandel, a slice of apple pie, home-brewed beer, vanilla ice cream. Puff pastry with figs and gorgonzola, herbed olives, brie-style cheese from Vermont, Shelburne Farms cheddar. Someone said I was a [...]

I wrote a story in 2002 that still nags me. It tugs at my hair like a little kid. I find myself opening the document, staring at it, wondering what I could add or delete to make it into what I think it should be. If it was on paper, it would be dog-eared and [...]

I still haven’t been to Chez Panisse, having not yet attained the kind of financial freedom that allows for spur-of-the-moment California trips and $150 dinners. Still, I have always admired what Alice Waters has to say, even if, at times, her preciousness grates. It’s important — now more than ever — to be conscious about [...]

Let’s do it.
I’m in for anything that includes the phrase “po-mo.”