Really I have so little to complain about: Handsome Chef Boyfriend did the lion's share of driving today, from the moment we pulled off our mountain all the way to somewhere-or-other just past Fredericksburg, VA, where we missed our intended exit. A few truths from the day: Three in the morning is a difficult time … Continue reading Way Down South Trip: Travel Days Are Difficult
Vacations
How many Vermonters does it take…
...to change a lightbulb? Handsome Chef Boyfriend and I are T minus five days to liftoff for our Way Down South trip, part the second, with an impossible work load to accomplish ‘til then. I am a compulsive maker of lists, less compulsive in their execution. In a perfect world we’d have a vacation week … Continue reading How many Vermonters does it take…
Summer Reading: Some Promising Looking Fresh Hell
What fresh hell can this be? It is a line sometimes attributed to Shakespeare, but Dorothy Parker said it. Dang Shakespeare. It's one of those quips that sounds so civilized, so much better than any number of other crude things one might choose to say when a situation demands it (wtf comes to mind). I found Dorothy … Continue reading Summer Reading: Some Promising Looking Fresh Hell
Howdy, 2016. I already miss you, 2015.
New Year's Eve 2015, a street corner in Saratoga Springs, NY. My boy Bentley and his friend Billy have been with us for a week, headed back to their respective homes in Tennessee at an obscene hour tomorrow morning. We've had a great time together. I am always amazed how you can blink and it's gone: … Continue reading Howdy, 2016. I already miss you, 2015.
Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
That is one Gwynn Root, a beautiful professional ballerina who currently dances for Festival Ballet in Providence, Rhode Island, although she has danced professionally with several other companies in her career to date. Here she is more recently, with Festival this past summer, in an image from the WaterFire Providence website: I met Gwynn eight … Continue reading Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
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 Fourth
I don't know what it is about ballet schools and railroads, but just about every single school where I've studied or taught has been on top of them; you learn to deal with the teeth-rattling thunder of the enormous diesel engines barreling down the tracks. It's part and parcel of operating in a low rent … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Fourth
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
July 27th Lake George Reunion
Sometimes I really am a princess. I never know exactly how to behave at big, multi-generational family gatherings because they weren't part of my own childhood. It's kind of like that feeling you get when you're in somebody else's kitchen—you want to be helpful, but it's not your kitchen or your stuff and you don't … Continue reading July 27th Lake George Reunion
Sycamore Stories 