It’s been a somewhat productive afternoon. After calling the heating contractor and hearing the cost estimate, I finally was spurred to start the process of something I should have done several months ago but, unfortunately, procrastinated: refinance my condo. I’ve missed the incredibly low rates of just a couple months ago, but the rates are […]

After conferring with Jay, my ex, who’s very knowledgeable about the heating and cooling systems at my condo (he lives in the same building, and is on the board of directors), I placed a call on Tuesday to one of the contractors to inquire about getting a new heat pump installed. The contractor called me […]

When we first started getting hanging out together and then started dating, Jeff and I saw some concerts, musicals, and a lot of films. More recently, though, I’d been feeling guilty because I felt like my schedule–hospital visits, home visits, work–had been preventing us from going out at all. But we seem to be getting […]

I’ve seen the purported sociological studies of usage and avoidance patterns for urinals in men’s bathrooms (e.g., in a bank of urinals, the newcomer takes the urinal that affords the most distance from men already standing at others), but there are a range of interesting bathroom behaviors. There are the usual suspects of those who […]

My mom has one uncle, her father’s youngest brother, who’s actually only a few years older than she. Moreover, his two daughters are only a couple of years older than me. When I was a kid, they lived in Northern Virginia and we didn’t see them very frequently, usually once a year for sure on […]

Last month I posted about my ongoing search for the best sour apple martini. Although the drink I had last night was called a sour apple margarita and is therefore not a martini, most of the other contemporary drinks called “martinis” are not technically martinis, either, so with my complete editorial discretion I’m going to […]

As my cat-sitter, personal baker and incredibly understanding boyfriend noted, I went back to visit Mom and my family again this past weekend. I calligraphed my dad’s name on acknowledgement cards and addresses on envelopes for about 50 thank-yous which Mom was going to complete this week. We also took care of several “firsts”–Mom’s first […]

From his recent trip to Boston, Jeff brought me back a truly gorgeous, green-gold tie from the MFA store. On Thursday, when we were picking out a suit and accessories to take to the funeral home for Dad to be dressed in, Mom told me to take any ties of his that I wanted to […]

While I both wanted and needed to be with my family through the events of this past week, I’m also very happy to be back home now. I love my family, but even under less stressful and tragic circumstances being with all of them can be overwhelming after a few days. And I’ll be spending […]

Saturday Mom and I stayed home all morning and afternoon. My oldest nephew had to referee two soccer games in the late morning, and afterwards my sister took him to the funeral home, so that he could see “the remains” on his own before the viewing and visitation scheduled that evening. The viewing for friends […]