I am sitting in the house alone save for the two dogs, who are waiting patiently for me to walk them.  I just finished a two-hour session with a student who is applying to medical school. We have been working on fifteen short answer questions for his application.  I am tired.  I worked all day…

I wrote this piece several years back, but since it’s Sarah’s 36th birthday today and she now has delivered any number of babies as a physician, I think it’s time again for her rather tumultuous home birth story. Besides, it reminds me of how precious this little bundle was and is, my very first baby,…

Today, I received a copy of my old friend Wendel Sloan’s book entitled, Kill a Moose for Jesus: Three Minute Essays on Punks, Poets, Parents, Preachers, Potheads, Parrotheads and Politicians.  Wendel, an award-winning writer, has written a column for the Eastern New Mexico News in Portales for many years now and many of these essays…

This morning, we headed back to LA from Ensenada. Unfortunately, we apparently weren’t the only Americans in Mexico this weekend. After spending 3 1/2 hours at the border waiting in line and five minutes at the border gate making sure we were all who we said we were, we were finally on our way back…

Here is a picture of the ocean where we are staying in Baja. The continuous roar of the waves is a lulling sound. The sky is gray, but the weather has been mild. We saw four dolphins jumping and playing in the waves for at least forty-five minutes this afternoon. This evening we drove about…

We are currently in our van with two of our three daughters, Gregorio, Luna and Nico (Rachael, Ariel and Ron couldn’t come). I just saw a sign that said 90 minutes to the border. We are outside of San Diego en route to Ensenada, Mexico where we will stay tonight with Gregorio ‘s mom and…

Today, I started at 10 am and worked for 2 hours with one student on his personal statement for a Master’s program in Oral Health, which will be the precursor to his dental school personal statement.  Then from 2 – 7, I worked with another student on a college term paper on police brutality. After…

Tonight, we had the first in a series of “fun” nights put on by what Ray called the “Ladies and Gentlemen’s Auxillary.”  We had a potluck, where everyone was encouraged to bring their favorite “funeral food,” meaning the dish that people bring to the family before a funeral and/or the food served at a funeral…

Today we are up in Ojai.  We worked all day cleaning and clearing and now I’m exceedingly tired. I feel good about what we accomplished so it was worth the effort.  The weather was quite cooperative. Just around 75 all day with a nice ocean breeze. I am headed to bed.  This is short, but…

Today has been a day of sleeping.  This is after several long days of work, one of which was 11 1/2 hours long with students.  I found this piece that I posted several years ago and decided it reflected accurately my need today for the refuge of a quiet room and several naps.  Refuges are…