I am an excellent typist. I mean I can zip around a keyboard like nobody’s business. This is all thanks to learning to type on a typewriter in high school. We had actual typing classes back then and I can type without once looking down at my fingers. Yep, I am pretty good at that….
Category: Writing as a Discipline
Art Sign-Ups Early This Morning
I was up bright and early to stand in line at the Barnsdall Art Center so that I could sign up for a ceramics class. Liz and Ron were there, too. Liz, because we’re taking the class to together, and Ron as a stand-in for Ray who needed to go work at the homeless breakfast….
A Memory of 9/11
Fourteen years ago on 9/11: 1) Ray and I didn’t allow our kids to go to school out of fear that there might be a Los Angeles attack. 2) Our whole family sat in bed and watched the news coverage that morning. 3) We were all stunned and horrified. 4) I kept expecting attacks in…
Work, Heat, A Visit and Air Conditioning
Today we were up bright and early – beating the heat – to work on items related to our estate business. We were able to be efficient and busy in the cool before the sun rose above the 14 story building across the street. This is so far the only real advantage of having that…
Heat, Heat and More Heat
Lordy. We are melting over here. Even in our air-conditioned bedroom, it feels warm. And it’s 9 o’clock at night! Today, I had a whole series of students – college essays – in my den. One fan for my student; one fan for me. Curtains pulled tight. Ceiling fan on. Sweating, nonetheless. We couldn’t even…
Heat Wave
First day back to work after the Labor Day holiday. The temperature soared today, hitting a high of 97 degrees in Los Angeles. I saw students downstairs in the part of the house where there is no air conditioning. In the morning, I met with students in the den with the curtains pulled tight and…
Last Day with Our Texas Friends
Our friends are leaving early tomorrow morning. We headed back from Ojai this afternoon and spent the late afternoon and evening visiting first at Liz and Ron’s house and then at Sarah and Gregorio’s. These are old family friends so they know our kids well and vice versa. It was important to spend time together…
Flash Memoir: “Seeing” As A Child
We had dark red linoleum in our kitchen at 902 East 9th Street where I grew up. The pattern had little bricks with gray jagged mortar lines and the bricks were slightly raised, as they would have been if they had been real bricks. The color was almost burgundy, and my parents had that linoleum…
My Day with Little Luna
Grandma is tired. We picked 2 1/2 year old Luna up at 7:30 am at the parking lot of the Barnsdall Art Center (Sarah is working at Children’s Hospital on a rotation for the next ten days and the hospital is a block away), then returned Luna to that same parking lot this evening around 6:30…
Lost Art: In Defense of Hardbound Books
I stand firmly in the camp advocating the importance of hardbound books. I realize we can save trees if we go entirely to a digital format for all books, but all I can say to that is, “Bah, humbug.” While I understand the value of reading on a digital device, I do not especially enjoy…
20 Minutes a Day 