My “old ladies,” a cadre of role-model older women whose friendships I’ve cultivated for the last 25 years, don’t know each other. Except for 88-year-old Betty and Marge, 101, who both live in my building, the rest either can’t meet or don’t want to. And yet, I keep thinking they might like each other. Twenty-plus […]
Ten Somewhat-Effective Strategies for Putting Away Your “Stuff”!
“Decluttering,” first used in 1950, is everywhere, thanks to Marie Kondo, who has her own Netflix show and whose name — used as a verb, no less — even made it into Orange is the New Black’s last season. Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, set […]
Stepping into Someone Else’s Paws
For months, I agonized about adopting a dog. (The phrase “getting a dog” doesn’t capture the experience.) A dog is not like a human partner, but it is no less a relationship. The day I take home a dog, I enter into a a lifetime pact — ’til death (mine or the dog’s) do we […]
Writing coach: I could do that
I don’t write novels, and my “debut pitch” happened decades ago. Still, I find myself reading, “How Many Words in a Novel: The Perfect Word Count for Your Debut Pitch.” I get there the way so many of us flit from here to there in cyberspace, wasting milliseconds that add up to hours. (Don’t believe […]
Don’t Go Blindly Into Cataract Surgery
I spend a lot of time on my eyes — their vision, not their wrinkles. Blind as a bat since age 5, I’ve worn glasses and contact lenses; I’ve had eye surgery. Now, dealing with cataracts and glaucoma, I’m naturally drawn to headlines like “New Hope for Aging Eyes,” a chirpy article in AARP’s magazine. I was disappointed. […]