The Pandemic has completely thrown my day-to-day life in reverse. Between the day trading and constant cable news monitoring, the days go by rather fast. I haven't been to a beach all year. And, the only sun I've gotten since spring has been when I am Middletown - and, only because I have a terrace ( Read more... )

I have a soft spot in my heart for Saturday Kitchen. It was where I first got to know some of my oldest friends in St. Michael's, including Marilyn, Pale Male, Joinus, and the late Frances Harven. It was where VRaptor, Miss Honey and I carried on the sweetest of platonic relationships (I shudder at how close VRaptor and I came to becoming actual ( Read more... )

Well, that strategy is now in shreds as Crosby officially invited his parents to "friend" him on Facebook earlier this week. Colette's response was classic ( Read more... )

Okay, first a little background. Pablo is an Unreliable Narrator, a fictional character with flaws. When you see something through their eyes, it is usually through the haze of a lot of issues and internal contradictions, thus, misunderstood and thus unreliable - if taken literally. Some famous Unreliable Narrators through history have been ( Read more... )

Miss Honey reminded me that VRaptor had recently celebrated his birthday. It probably happened in September because it's right around Mom's. What I hadn't realized was that it was his fortieth. I wish I'd known (or paid more attention) because I'd like to think I would have made bigger deal out of it ( Read more... )

Went to Saturday Kitchen this morning, mainly to speak with Crosby. It was rainy and I was late. Marilyn put me behinnd the food line for the first time in years. It could have been worse. She might have put me in charge of the desserts. But, a resourceful young woman whose name I did not learn, drafted me into serving the sweet potatos which were ( Read more... )

Saturday was a morning full of surprises as I arrived at my regular (for now) time. The first thing I saw was Oliver preparing the bread table. I guess the last time was at Jean Chambers' funeral. We made a good team, cutting the loaves into smaller piees and bagging them. There was also a lot of fruit - mainly apples. The second surprise was ( Read more... )

This a rare moment in the life of St. Michael's when so many pieces of its recent past seem compelled to fall back into place. First, Crosby. Then, Reverend Kate. Now, as I was cutting up bread loaves on the Saturday Kitchen line, I looked up and was flush with the face of a beautiful dark-haired woman with the brownest eyes I have ever seen. It ( Read more... )

So...I'm sitting here at my laptop, supposedly working on my young adult novel while instead gazing out my windoo at all the construction going on in Downtown Brooklyn, all the while thinking, "I really should be at Saturday Kitchen." That's where Crosby is at this exact moment. It is my old stomping ground as well as VRaptor's and PaleMale's and ( Read more... )

I arrived at Mass just in time to hear Hassan reading one of the Bible passages selected for the day's worship. I was so struck by his earnest demeanor and quality of his voice that I stood by one of the columns until he was finished. It was from Ephesians 2:1. Part of it went something like this ( Read more... )