Lying down, I wonder, Where is the usual stream of cars?  No trucks pause below the window, their hydraulics puffing and groaning at the stoplight.  There’s no misbegotten youth outside, yelling to each other, laughing, sometimes fighting.  It’s as if, tonight, they&… Read full post »

OSer Ingrid Ricks’ new memoir FOCUS starts out like a nightmare:  During a routine eye exam, she’s told the slight vision problems she’s been having might be more than just a side effect of getting older.  Another examination reveals that she has retinitis pigmentosa… Read full post »

People are often surprised when I suggest a cemetery as one of the things they should see in Paris.

Of course, Père Lachaise isn’t like most cemeteries.  Named for a Jesuit priest and confessor of Louis XIV who once owned the land, Père Lachaise opened i… Read full post »

They say if you love someone, set them free.  Growing up with two loving but controlling parents, often, to be set free was all I wanted.  I wanted out of obligations, I wanted to be able to go out of state for college, and out of the country to explore. … Read full post »

My friend Ellen had a dollhouse that had been constructed for her by a family member.  Made of thin pine boards.  The carpets of the tiny rooms, I realize now, were mere green felt.  But what a thing it was, an elaborate maze of stairways and small spaces.  Even the dolls… Read full post »

- I’m coming to Paris!   I’ll stay with you, like we planned!  What's your address? 

- My place is problematic. 

 - It doesn’t matter. I love you.  You don’t feel the same? 

 - I do. Okay: Avenue Feuillant. … Read full post »

As you can imagine, Irritable Bowel Syndrome makes a lot of things difficult, from food choices and eating in restaurants, to getting to and from work, or, in extreme cases, even getting up the courage to leave the house.   But there are also so many little things that become… Read full post »

The "last meal" is the kind of thing most of us have probably thought about at one time or another, perhaps while watching some prison drama or cooking show – or while enjoying some bliss-inducing, excellent food.

The thing is, I personally find myself getting too caught up in the… Read full post »

The people lingering in the garish hallways of the Drouot auction house seem suddenly to move faster as the time arrives. Middle-aged men in plaid shirts and sagging khakis, old women falling into ruin, stand -- or, if they can, sit -- just outside the door of Salle 14.

I… Read full post »

This weekend, I tried to end something that’s been nagging at me for a while.  A small worry, a lingering regret.  A few years ago, I bought a 1920's-era photograph from an old woman at a neighborhood-wide garage sale.  The woman told me that the person in the picture was… Read full post »

One day many years ago, my mother took my sister and me to the veterinary clinic where she was working.  Though she often let us visit her workplace (cats with tiny anesthesia masks on, kenneled dogs crazily barking, and the odor of benedyne pepper my childhood memories), this time was… Read full post »

Over the past few days, the boyfriend has single-handedly built a wall-to-wall sliding-door storage closet in our living room. Banned from the construction site because of my clumsiness (and rightly so; yesterday, for example, while carrying my computer, I somehow slipped on our non-slippery floor, c… Read full post »

“You can insist all you like.  I won’t do it.”

“Claude, I really need you to be in this photograph.  It’s a way to promote the act – and if we don’t promote the act, we could risk losing our place here.”

“There are enough… Read full post »

A response to Beth Mann’s post, “My Secret Republican Side”.

It’s hard to see completely clearly within yourself, but I know that most of the major decisions I’ve made in my life point to love being what motivates me.  Which made it sort of funn… Read full post »

Recently, I came across some pictures I've taken of various places around Paris over the past year or so.  Voulez-vous take a little photographic trip avec moi? 

If you do, let’s head down to the Metro, and check out a map to see how to get to where we’re headed… Read full post »

Our cat Ali tries his best to beat the heat.

 With some exceptions, including most office buildings, museums, and movie theaters, a majority of French interiors are sans air-conditioning.

When it comes to modern conveniences, the French often seem to be behind… Read full post »

August 16 is the anniversary of the boyfriend and I first moving in together.  Somehow, I realized this morning, I’d attributed the date to my OS blogoversary, which is actually August 14.

I guess it’s not so surprising; in many ways, like our apartment, OS has become a home for… Read full post »

As many of us know, there has been a sudden upswing in blatant anti-Semitism here on OS.  Generally when people make hateful remarks, especially on a site like this, where most members seem to be open-minded, tolerant people, to say the least, I try not… Read full post »

Nearly two decades after their rough divorce, my parents still don’t exactly get along very well, to put it mildly.  One of my father’s constant criticisms of my mother is, “She likes animals more than people.”  Seeing that he was forced to live with at least… Read full post »

 When Lea Lane told me she was going to be in Paris in early August and wanted to get together, I was excited.  But I have to admit, once the initial excitement died down, I also felt a little nervous.  Lea, after all, is a world-traveller who seems to have done it… Read full post »

Dwarfed by soaring sequoias in Muir Woods 

Imagine the tree*

that I could touch

without fear

its rough

bark

unriddled

with insects,

my skin ready

for the feel

of its lines and mine

interlocking,

afterwards… Read full post »