We made it to the Beverly Hills Purim Ball tonight to honor our friend, Dr. Elisa Newman White. I did find a tailor to make the necessary alterations, and I also attended to all of those needed elements to look halfway civilized. Here is a picture of Ray and me just before we left: We…
Category: Stories
LA Phil: The Gospel According to the Other Mary
We went to the LA Phil today to see the staged version of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary. This comes just before Easter so it’s especially timely since it chronicles Jesus’s life from the raising of Lazarus to Jesus’s own death and resurrection. The music was composed by John Adams and…
Liz: Almost There!
Here is my daughter, Elizabeth Beaty, who finishes her last final at Southwestern Law School on Monday and then starts a 2-month externship before graduating on May 12, 2013. This sweet middle girl of mine is about to complete law school in an accelerated two year program, which is called SCALE. Southwestern has one of…
Drive-ins and Being Sixteen Again
The drive-in theater in Bonham, Texas is a place I spent more than a few Friday nights in my teenage years. Yes, I was there with my boyfriend, Sam, and I would be less than honest if I said that we ever saw more than half of any movie. There was something so private –…
Lazy Sunday and the Oscars
I am sitting in my back yard here in CA enjoying the sun. The temperature is 66 degrees and there is not a cloud in the sky. There is just enough wind to make it feel cool, but not cold. The sun is warm, but not hot. Ah, lovely. Here is the back yard: Cordelia…
Aristotle, Tragedy and My Student, Cameron
My student, Cameron, is writing for 20 minutes, so I’m going to use this time to write my blog for today. Cameron is sitting over in one of our recliners with her feet up, her computer in her lap, and a cup of Tetley’s tea on the table beside her. She is 15-years-old, already a…
Lessons from John Steinbeck
I have just begun reading John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, a compilation of Steinbeck’s letters to his editor and friend, to whom he addressed a journal entry every day before writing his manuscript pages for his novel. East of Eden is one of the first books I read years ago…
Jamie Lee and Me…
Tonight, while I was gathering up my computer and trying to decide what I was going to write about, I glanced at the bookshelf in our bedroom. There is a book there entitled Tony Curtis, The Autobiography and on the book is a picture of Tony Curtis as an older man. This made me think…
January 16th: Elizabeth’s Birthday!
Today I have been thinking about Liz’s birth back in 1986. How I had gone to the midwife on the morning of the 15th and declared, “I just need to have this baby,” even though my due date was two weeks away. I don’t know if it was the “I can’t stand being pregnant another second”…
My Mother and Her Pain
“Please don’t share our family tragedy,” my mother whispered to me while we stood in church together in Pottsboro, Texas in 1990. I understood what she was saying to me. “Please don’t tell these people. I can’t bear to deal with this right now.” Tragedy was not too strong of a word. We had just…
20 Minutes a Day 