If someone says they’re “on top of the world” it generally means that everything is going great and they are happy. As it turns out, I found myself contemplating “happiness” as I was, quite literally, on top of the world. I had traveled to Scandinavia as part of a work trip which culminated in some […]
I’ve been pondering endings and beginnings lately, both of which can be bittersweet. Seneca (the Roman philosopher) said “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” I find myself sifting through things that have happened in this past year and parsing them into exactly that…1) new beginnings, or 2) some other beginning’s end.
“You should join a marathon training running club” was the epitome of the worst weight loss advice I’ve ever gotten from a doctor.
Note to self: Visiting touristy locations to see touristy things during the peak of tourist season is not your happy place. I recently had the opportunity to go to Italy for work, with the bulk of the travel costs covered by a third party—pretty much a dream situation. As is the case with most European […]
One year ago my mother died. Anniversaries are often meant to be momentous occasions. A milepost in the march of time when one is supposed to pause and take stock of how far they’ve come over the past year. Progress…decline…stagnation. All best measured against one’s status exactly 365 days prior, or so I’m led to […]
I recently started riding an electric bike and it fills me with great shame. Or at least it did…until recently. Who knew a bicycle with a battery and a little motor would be so fraught with emotional baggage? It seems this bike has given me a front-row seat to the underbelly of both 1) the bike […]
Bison being swept out to sea; 400 hundred people being airlifted to safety; hikers being trapped for days by raging rivers and landslides; homes, roads and bridges washed away. This might sound like the trailer for a new apocalypse movie, but in reality it just means that Michele and Glenn recently went on vacation. We […]
Somehow, Glenn and I found ourselves in Hawaii recently. A month or so ago we sat slumped in our living room chairs, staring mindlessly at our iPads after a long day at work. It was dark, cold and rainy. Again. “I want to go on a trip,” Glenn suddenly proclaimed. “Me too!!” I replied. We […]
It took me almost a year to convince Glenn we should build a little house in our backyard. They go by a lot of different names – granny flat, mother-in-law apartment, or accessory dwelling unit, to name a few. Glenn didn’t care what I called it, he just knew it meant strangers living in the […]
I learned a lot of things on a recent weeklong backpacking trip with a bunch of guys… …including the fact that boys like to talk about poop. A lot. Their poop-banter was delightfully juvenile and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I also loved having the opportunity to spend so much quality time in nature with friends […]
The total solar eclipse knocked my socks off. If I’m totally honest, I wasn’t expecting that. I mean…I’ve seen and done some pretty amazing things in my life. This blog is full of tales of those adventures. For better or for worse, at this point I feel like I am hard to impress. I figured […]
Those were the last words I said to my mother as she died. “I cleaned out the fridge, mom.” She passed away almost three months ago – a few days after my post about her going into hospice care and just over a year after my post about her terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. I […]
A little over a year ago I was sitting with my mother during her first chemotherapy treatment for pancreatic cancer. Today, I find myself sitting with my mother again – this time next to what will most likely be her deathbed. As was expected, the chemotherapy treatments eventually stopped working and my mother made the […]
“That’s on my bucket list” is a common refrain I’ve used in the past. In reality, I didn’t actually have a list – just a general sense of things I wanted to do if and when I ever got around to it. So, several years ago – long before we began losing weight and getting […]
There is always that one person on most every group travel trip. You know… “the one.” They often exhibit one or more of the following characteristics: An exhausting personality or offensive sense of humor. The embodiment of the crass and entitled (North) American tourist stereotype. Talking your ear off at dinner, all the while complaining about […]
