We had dinner tonight at Liz’s boyfriend’s parent’s house in Hollywood. Ron made a homemade pizza dough from a Bobby Flay recipe, and cooked it on the grill. Cindy, Ron’s mom, made a homemade tomato sauce. Then there were loads of toppings to choose from including smoked gouda and mozzarella cheese, red onions, red peppers,…
Author: lenleatherwood
I am a native Texan who has lived for the past 30 years in Southern California. I am a published author of both short memoir and fiction, a two-time Pushcart nominee, a nationally award-winning writing coach, an editor, as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Texas. In addition, I am the mother of three grown daughters of whom I am extremely proud, a grandmother of four darling children and the wife of a man I still love after 44 years.
May Light Perpetual Shine Upon You, My Friend
Today we had Peter Kempson’s requiem mass at St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood. He planned the whole thing with Father Davies after receiving his terminal diagnosis, and Peter told me that he was pleased with the readings and hymns that he had picked. He was right; it was quite lovely. I served as one of…
A Few Facts about My Favorite Fruit: Watermelon
Watermelon is my favorite fruit. In fact, I just consumed about a fourth of a watermelon a few minutes ago and I am currently staring at its rind. I am also very tired today after a long round trip to Ojai and Santa Barbara. I thought sharing a few facts on watermelons might be edifying…
Birth Order: How Has It Affected Me?
I am the fifth out of six children; technically, the fifth out of seven since my little brother, Robert, died just a few hours after his birth. I was 18 months old at the time of his death. From my perspective, there were two sets of kids in our family: the older kids: Leslie, John…
Childhood Best Friend
My best friend growing up was Patricia Butler. I met her when I was three and she was four, when her family moved to my little town and began attending our tiny Episcopal mission there. Patricia was the polar opposite of me in appearance: she had big blue eyes, snow-blonde hair and was skinny as…
An Unexpected Ending
The other day, I was headed out to Pasadena to see Sarah, Gregorio and baby Luna. Ray was already there so I was driving our old but trusty Jaguar, vintage 2003. I love this car. We bought it secondhand in 2006, and besides having low mileage, we were even able to talk to the mechanic…
James Brown’s New Bio-Pic: Head on Out and See It.
This evening we went to see the James Brown bio-pic, Get On Up, starring Chadwick Boseman as James Brown. It must be said that despite James Brown’s checkered past, I have always been a huge fan of his music. I grew up in the 50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s and he truly is the Godfather of…
Six Degress of Separation from West Africa’s Ebola Epidemic
My daughter Sarah told me today that many of her medical school friends in Fort Worth worked with Dr. Kent Brantly, the doctor who has been infected with the Ebola virus in Liberia and who has just arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Sarah did not work with him personally because she chose to do…
A Little Overnight Visitor
We are having an overnight visitor today: grandbaby Luna. Her mom has an overnight shift at the hospital and her dad is headed off on an archaeological dig to Baja. Auntie Rachael is here for the night, too, but we get to have Luna upstairs with us. What heaven to have this girl with us….
Up in Ojai
We have made an unanticipated trip to Ojai since our new well appears to need a few adjustments. It has been warmish up here with temperatures in the low 90’s, but it is a dry heat with an ocean breeze softening it so not too bad. It is now starting to cool off and will…
20 Minutes a Day 