This is theatre week for us at ballet school; Thursday we have lengthy tech rehearsals, Friday dress rehearsals, and two curtains on Saturday. The academic year draws to a close, its labors bear fruit, the school's young dancers showcase what they have learned in the guise of ambitious new works created just for them. Predictably … Continue reading White Noise
Transitions
Finding Elusive Beauty
Last week I observed to someone how easily I can descend into a bad place when I think of my life’s recent milestones in terms of loss: family, home, livelihood. This happened to me more or less all at once about two years ago. And then just on the heels of venturing a thousand miles … Continue reading Finding Elusive Beauty
Secret Garden Part I
Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I squeezed much into our Saturday as we are wont to do; it is really our only day together every week, so to quote Eloise, You can imagine.... In the late afternoon we pushed up our sleeves and got to work clearing and preparing beds in the terraced gardens on the beautiful … Continue reading Secret Garden Part I
Gracie’s Tomatoes
My great-grandmother lived 'til I was into my thirties; notably, for all but the last couple of months of her life, she was pretty dang lucid, too. Had she survived another year she'd have met her great-great-grandson. But, to quote a friend, she still won. Gracie. She lived in a tiny, vernacular cottage perched at … Continue reading Gracie’s Tomatoes
Rancor-Me-Not
This morning my Handsome Chef Boyfriend gave me a smooch on his way out the door back to his own stomping grounds, just a bit further afield than I would like. Be careful, I said; let me know when you’re there safe. Do you ever stop worrying about things, he chided? No. Never. I never, … Continue reading Rancor-Me-Not
Bump in the Road
Southern friends, this one's for you. (And it is emphatically not a metaphor for anything.) Late last winter or maybe early spring, not sure, Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I were headed across the Connecticut River to a favorite little eatery over in Lyme for a pleasant cold-grey-day lunch. I was behind the wheel of my … Continue reading Bump in the Road
Polar Vortex
Yes, it really is as bad as it seems. Looks like a five-year-old got into the yarn, huh? Or maybe the booze? Multiply by ten, and you're almost there. I remember an epic argument between my teenage self and my mama just before my senior year in high school. Take Home Economics, she urged; you … Continue reading Polar Vortex
Knowing When
Not long ago during an afternoon break between job one and job two I sat in a quirky White River Junction coffee shop thinking about my Clarence-the-Canine, reflecting on images in my mind's eye of the unmistakable changes in his gait over the last few weeks. Then I did what you're not supposed to do: … Continue reading Knowing When
It takes all the running you can do…
...to keep in the same place.--Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland On a gorgeous summer morning several years ago my now-ex and I sat at a small sidewalk café in downtown Knoxville, our family’s Shiloh Shepherd Teddy Blue resting comfortably under the table. (A Shiloh, in case you wondered, is a giant breed with ties to the … Continue reading It takes all the running you can do…
Just click your heels together three times…
Have you ever awakened in the darkness and have no idea where you are? Once in a while this happens to me, more often than not of late. Is this my bedroom? Where? Wait, not Memphis--I have not lived there since childhood. Knoxville. Wrong again. I live in Vermont now. Am I in the cottage? No, I … Continue reading Just click your heels together three times…
Sycamore Stories 