The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore: When you let him in, then he wants to be out; He's always on the wrong side of every door, And as soon as he's at home, then he'd like to get about.—T.S. Eliot The oppressive heat of high summer in Memphis, Tennessee reaches its fingers across … Continue reading The Wrong Side of Every Door: Finding Paradise
Transitions
Shut Up and Listen
Some people change the very demeanor of a space simply by stepping into it. Franco De Vita is one of them. So is his colleague and partner in life, Raymond Lukens. And for a beautiful and golden chapter in my own life I had the great privilege of learning from these two wise men how to … Continue reading Shut Up and Listen
(Dis)Comfort and Joy
Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I spent yesterday Christmas shopping over in Saratoga Springs. We had fun, observed people, marveled at humanity, privately assessed it as we are wont to do for amusement. We ate lunch and dinner out, rare for us, and arrived home content if a little weary, with a bargain Christmas tree tied to the … Continue reading (Dis)Comfort and Joy
Winter Workouts: Pouring Myself Nice Glass of Endorphins
I let the original version of this post sit in the queue and marinate for a while, and then I scrapped it. It sounded way, way too Eeyore-ish, and that is not how I wish to be thought of. But I admit to struggling with a heaping case of the blues lately. I always look for … Continue reading Winter Workouts: Pouring Myself Nice Glass of Endorphins
Homecoming, Part the Fifth
That's me up there, flanked by my bosom buddies Bett and Emily. The three of us and our families have known each other for decades. They are the kind of people who see you through everything that happens in your life, and you them. I assumed we'd be together as friends forever. And there are … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Fifth
Homecoming, Part the Second
It is beyond me how 1000 miles disappear so quickly in the rear view mirror, or how four days dissolve in what feels like a half hour. It's what has transpired in the intervening hours since 2:30 Saturday morning when Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I began our long drive south to see family and friends, … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Second
Homecoming, Part the First
This afternoon, for the first time since I moved to Vermont, a stranger made a comment about my Southern accent (which I can't hear at all). I walked through the automatic doors at Home Depot, where a man wearing a familiar orange apron was stooped to some task or other. He asked me how I was. … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the First
What does THIS button do?
I lived in Denver for a few years in my twenties, mostly piddling around, as my mama would say. I took a brief break from academia (where I should have been hard at work), to dance a little, but mostly to explore. The last year I lived there I worked in a frame shop with … Continue reading What does THIS button do?
Closing a Chapter
Yesterday Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I made our final run to Vermont's beautiful Upper Valley to collect the last of my things from the loft I called home for about a year and a half. It was a grind; there was still some heavy stuff he missed last week because he could not get to … Continue reading Closing a Chapter
Promise, Renewal
Friday was stunning, Saturday overcast, and today cold, rainy, and windy as hell. So windy in fact that a big whoosh felled a tree near the house (good-sized maple), bouncing off Handsome Chef Boyfriend's new car—big damage—and hitting the ground next to mine, but not before completely taking out a tail light on my Subi … Continue reading Promise, Renewal
Sycamore Stories 