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
Transitions
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
It’s the Little Things
I think it must be a function of age and want. I don't recall ever getting so excited over ripe tomatoes. And crispy local green beans. And fresh ears of corn just arrived from Georgia, and expensive organic strawberries like the pint I bought as a special treat last Friday, and my Sunday morning yoga … Continue reading It’s the Little Things
Bustin’ Out All Over
Every single year, every single June I get that earworm from Carousel: "June is bustin' out all over!" Aw, c'mon. Sock it to me. It's Tonys night, after all. And guess what? I survived my third <wait for it...> Vermont Winter! I am still standing. I am also bustin' out all over, a condition to which … Continue reading Bustin’ Out All Over
Life in Vermont, Writ Mini
Today was gorgeous, but we spent it mostly inside, organizing and spring cleaning, and weaving into an impossibly-small-and-growing-smaller-by-the-moment house another vanload of stuff we carted down from my oldish place to the newish one. It's not fun, it's a process, and that's about all you can say. As of exactly a week ago we officially … Continue reading Life in Vermont, Writ Mini
Taproot
Friday was one of those intoxicating Vermont spring days where you think there must be some mistake in the landscape: nature's greens can't possibly be that, well, green. But there they are. More than once in recent days I have wanted to press pause and hang on to the neons betraying new foliage for just a … Continue reading Taproot
Sycamore Stories 