If it were not for David, I think our family would not have gelled together the way it did.  When I married Mario (as I wrote yesterday) he came complete with David and Joe, two kids that stole my… Read full post »

                                                                                &n… Read full post »

                                                                                &n… Read full post »

The day Alicia was born I had pancakes at Lyon’s restaurant  on Clover Road in Tracy.

The doctors had sent me home because the pitossin drip had not worked (could have fooled me, it sure felt like la… Read full post »

 "Listen carefully," he said, "this won't be easy for you to hear"....

I waited.

“This is the only broom we use in this space.”

I looked at it.  It was impossible. 

“And the place needs to be swept every day, or else she’ll fire… Read full post »

My history as a fourth-grade teacher usually colors the way I see most holidays.  In the classroom, my favorite thing to do was to say "Let me tell you something that the other teachers won't tell you..."  It made the students pay attention, and made them feel that… Read full post »

Old New Lefty “open-called me out” to write this, and so I answered, with a different view.  What he had to say was definitely valid, and I heard him strongly.  Here is my answer to this call, word for word…compare it to Old New Lefty’s&… Read full post »

Alysa wrote about her favorite love story of all time in a movie – Cyrano (I agree, the story is very romantic). There are so many love stories that picking one out from a Hollywood movie is difficult.

The one I would choose is one that is  a… Read full post »

I still remember the day that David, our oldest son, met his wife-to-be.  I was upstairs on the phone and Mario was downstairs, and we were listening as he was telling us about a date he had with a pretty young lady named Lennae. 

I was… Read full post »

In the house where I grew up, there were things you were not allowed to joke about: the Virgin Mary, the Holocaust, and John F. Kennedy (and then maybe all of the other Kennedy’s, except for Jackie who had gone off and remarried a Greek tycoon).  Now and then… Read full post »

Our friend, Luke, left our house after a heavy conversation on our back porch with Mario.  The guys came through the kitchen just to say goodbye, but I knew that Luke had just had a gut-wrenching purge and was ready to go home to his wife.  Mario… Read full post »

Somewhere in the difference

The chirp of nine hours-

I am losing you.

My visit to the moon

Is my fault, you say.

But in the silence your face, a tender blush -

Reminds me that your heart

(so fickle) 

will go to another

If I am not… Read full post »

When Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995, no one forsaw the impact it would make on the world of e-mags.   It's "baby", Open Salon magazine covers a variety of topics, from reviews and articles about politics,music, books, and films. It also has articles about… Read full post »

Sudanese Kids carry bricks to help us build the school base in Padak

                           Samantha (on the left) with her French husband Pascal Rubinatin 

It is a fairly common practice among women that if someone is your friend you should compliment her beauty.  After all, w… Read full post »

1. Your main trait:  Beauty

2. The quality you like best in a woman:  vulnerability

3. The quality you like best in a man:   integrity

4. Your main flaw:  pride

5. Last time you cried:  before I started taking anti-depressants.  

6. Ideal job: living it

7… Read full post »

Most of you know I'm working on something right now.  Besides that, I have just a little time here.

 A friend wrote to me - a friend who is new here- and had a concern for the content.  What she had heard was that Open Salon was a community of writers.… Read full post »

Once you were 

In my mind

My younger, only, charming, shining,

Never-will-mess-up, never-will-fail

delightful

light

leader

I am now supposed to write

to you on the inside

I am afraid

that my words will sound foreign , caged, nonsensical.

They will

because they are.

My thoughts are… Read full post »

Valentine’s Day and I have kind of a love-hate relationship.  On one hand, I am a romantic at heart and I love good, unexpected love stories.  On the other hand, I see the day as a set-up (mainly for men to become oozing, sappy wimps who spend… Read full post »

Like many happenings in American News, I find out what’s going on via facebook, twitter or here, on Open Salon.  Because world news is much different than American pop news (USA Today), the way I found out about Whitney Houston dying was a post here. 

Whitney Houston… Read full post »