On Saturday night after St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood’s Lessons and Carols service (which was glorious, by the way), one of my fellow acolytes, Anthony Palacios, came up and told me he had been worried about our orange grove up in Ojai because of the Thomas Fire. I let him know all was well – so…

Today, Ray, Sarah, Gregorio, Liz, Ron and I drove up to Ojai to assess the condition of our orange grove after the Thomas fire had raged so dangerously close this week.  Rachael and Ariel stayed home and watched Luna and Nico. This trip came after Ray and I decided to cancel a planned visit to…

Today is my brother Jim’s birthday.  He died of AIDS in 1994.  I wish he were around. I miss him. Jim was one of those guys who was on the cutting edge of whatever he did.  He was the first person I knew who owned a car phone, he bought a laserdisc player when they…

I had the nicest time with my four-year-old granddaughter Luna on Sunday afternoon at the orange grove. Ray asked her if she’d like to stay for a few more hours and catch a ride home with Auntie Liz and Uncle Ron, who would be leaving later in the day.  Luna immediately said yes. So her parents…

I have a student who will be writing an essay on Zora Neale Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, so I had the pleasure of reading for the first time this book that was published back in 1937.  I just finished it yesterday and I have to say that I fell in love with this…

We have returned to LA after being in Ojai since last Wednesday. Since that time, we’ve had 25 people for Thanksgiving, gone to the Ventura beach, the park in Ojai, a hike at the Nature Conservancy, and spent many hours in the evening sitting around a roaring fire.  We’ve eaten Karri’s turkey grilled on the…

Today, Rachael and Ray made this cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving meal.  It’s better to make a few days ahead so the flavors will meld.  Rachael did the chopping of the apples and Ray did the rest.  It is easy and delicious.  No refined sugar, only honey. It’s just not a holiday around our house…

In the spring of 1975 when I was 22, my boyfriend Nick and I decided we would go to Europe after I graduated from college in June. (He was already finished with school and up for an adventure). The goal was to go for a year and the original plan (or at least the one…

I am sitting with fifteen-year-old Michael and we are both doing our quick writes.  I have been working all day with students on college essays that are due either today or November 30th so this is a nice respite from that very concentrated work. Cordelia, our corgi, just jumped up on the couch next to…