Notes on A(nother) Move
Yes, you read that right. I’m moving. Again. This is number 16. By mid-August I will no longer be a Texan but a Washingtonian, thus ending my 44-year sojourn in the Lone Star State. I apologize for the silence on this blog the past few months, but this particular life event has thrown my equilibrium […]
Florescence 2023, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Florescence 2023, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston April 26 and 27 the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston hosted Florescence, a major flower design show and competition cosponsored by The Garden Club of America, Houston Garden Club, and River Oaks Garden Club of Houston. This show has been on hiatus since 2019 because of COVID, so […]
Earth Day 2023—Seven Things We Can Do for Planet Earth
Earth Day started in 1970. I was 13 years old, in junior high school, and thought it was the oddest thing—Earth Day? What did they mean by that? I couldn’t imagine this was something that was going to catch on. Was it going to be one of these artificial Hallmark holidays, fabricated to send somebody […]
Lightscape at Houston Botanic Garden
Lightscape at Houston Botanic Garden I attended the second annual holiday light show at the Houston Botanic Garden, Lightscape, on New Year’s Day, 2023. Here are just a few photos from this awesome light show. This is a mile-long trail you walk through that starts at the botanic gardens and takes you through stations that […]
Goodbye, 2022 and Hello, 2023!
Happy New Year to everyone! 2022 seemed like a fairly quiet, uneventful year, and I wasn’t sure what this year-end post would be about. But more and more things came to mind, and I realized I did accomplish some things and cross a few milestones. As usual, I have a few things to say. Maybe […]
History Through the Eyes of a Child
I recently had the good fortune to spend Thanksgiving with a few of my siblings in the Palm Springs area in California. I arrived early in the week, on November 21. Because of this timing, my visit coincided with the 59th anniversary of a major event in America’s history. On November 22, 1963, the United […]
My Five Proudest Moments
I was sent the following writer’s prompt recently by a leader in my writer’s group: “Think back through your life and think about what you are most proud of. The items on your list could be things you accomplished ‘out in the world’ or things that happened internally. Knowing who you are and where you’ve […]
Protecting Our Privacy Has a Cost. What Are You Willing To Pay?
Early in the spring of 2008, the Rockport, Texas Master Gardeners held their Hidden Gardens tour, where individual homeowners gave tours of their private back gardens. Because I’ve always been an avid gardener, I thought this would be something I’d enjoy. I came back incredibly inspired. I saw fabulous private landscapes hidden away from public […]
Losing the Queen; Losing Our Mothers
The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II this past week has me thinking about what it means to lose our mothers. Of course, in the case of the Queen, she was not only the mother of a quite large extended family, but the female figurehead of a huge Commonwealth of Nations. I cannot imagine […]
Chased by Hurricane Rita: The Aftermath of a False Alarm
My boyfriend Craig and I made the move to Rockport, Texas in the spring of 2005 for the purposes of opening an art gallery. After an intensive search for a property to house the gallery, we finally found what we were looking for in April of that year and began extensive renovations. The whole process […]
Guard Your Heart in a Crisis: You May be an Easy Target for Manipulation
Coming home to a disaster It was mid-January 2006, and I had just returned the day before from a two-week vacation in Europe. I had gone to visit my childhood friend Diane, who was living in France. Once I arrived in France, we and two of her daughters took off for a week in Rome, […]
This Memorial Day Weekend, We Remembered Lost Children Instead of Lost Military
For the past week, I haven’t known what to do with my anger. The evening news was trying to remind us that Memorial Day weekend was coming up, when we traditionally honor those who have fallen in the line of duty while serving our country. But by and large the news half-hour was dominated by […]
A Hard Conversation, Rewritten the Way You Wish it Went
We’ve all been there: You have something to say to your better half. Something’s been bugging you for a long time, and it’s time to have that hard conversation. Something needs fixing in your relationship. Why is it always you who has to be the one to start these difficult discussions? You’ve planned it out […]
Houston Art Car Parade
Houston Art Car Parade, 2022 The Houston Art Car Parade took place on a beautiful sunny afternoon on April 9, 2002. It had been on hiatus for 2 years, like everything else, because of COVID-19. So the artists really pulled out all the stops! Decorated cars, motorcycles, bikes, rolling canoes, and even a giant rollerskate […]
Ghosted by a Friend Over Trump: Five Ways I’ve Moved On
There was something about the text message I just read that seemed off to me. It didn’t sound like my friend Gabby at all (not her real name). Early warning signs Things had been growing tense between us for about a year prior to the events I’m about to describe. Ever since I’d moved back […]
Renters Who Become Crime Victims: How to Break Your Lease (or Not)
Crime is rampant for apartment dwellers I was recently browsing on the social media site NextDoor® and ran across this post: “Just drove through my apartment’s parking garage (Heights West End) and witnessed a trail of cars on blocks. In all my years of apartment living, I’ve never seen anything like this. They hit car […]
A New Kind of Discrimination in the American Workplace
I experienced my first corporate layoff when I was only 25 years old. I was already married, and my husband Brad and I were in the middle of building a new house. At such a young age and with very little work (or life) experience under our belts, we were ill prepared for this kind […]
When a Mother Fails to Love: What’s Helped Me Move On
Like most girls in junior high school, I tried out for all the cheerleading squads every time tryouts came around—basketball, football, even wrestling. And like 95 percent of the girls, I never made the squad. My kicks weren’t high enough, my splits weren’t split enough, my arms weren’t board-straight enough, I couldn’t jump high enough—and, […]
Happy New Year 2022
Many people use New Year’s Day to make resolutions, or lists of things to do in the coming year. They may use the day to take stock of the previous year and think about what worked for them, what didn’t, and try to make adjustments going forward. I’m on several mailing lists these days, and […]
Merry Christmas 2021!
Happy holidays to everyone! I hope 2021 was a bit better for you than 2020 was. Looking back, I had my share of disappointments this year. First and foremost was that as my 1-year lease came to a close on the townhouse I’m renting, I decided I wanted to make a purchase offer to my […]