Take a peak at my spoliated bed...

http://jewelsofwisdom.tumblr.com/post/44323856069/diggers-and-dahlias-hubris-and-humility-on-the-lower  Read full post »

Beth Mann and Alysa Salzberg's posts generated such interest that I could scarce hope to intervene, so I decided to share some undigested, ad hoc observations about immigration . . . legal or otherwise.

I was registering the birth of Youngest at the American Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal about day… Read full post »

Spent most of last week showing a visitor around Lisbon, Singhalese-Canadian. Don't ask how we met. How do single 50-somethings hiding behind their computer screens thousands of miles away meet?

I showed him restaurants, introduced him to friends, pointed out tourist spots that we rarely got around… Read full post »

On one of the higher hills around, our 7^th floor flat looks out over the outskirts of Lisbon.  To the east we see rooftops and the Benfica stadium. To the West a spot of green and more rooftops. To the north one’s eyes catch sight of the tops of tombs and… Read full post »

Issue Number One: The Wedge

The Portuguese constitution guarantees health care to every citizen and taxpayer.

The Constitution does not, however, mandate the egalitarian distribution of the tool necessary for making the system run smoothly: the “wedge”. Michaelis (though Brazilian*, it&… Read full post »

As 2013 takes baby steps towards the light, I want to offer you 12 raisins, one for each of the year’s new months.

)---(     )---(     )---(     )---(     )---( 

Raisin 1:  Yearning. The all-encom… Read full post »

It took more than one hand of fingers to count the number of years before the local hires at my ESL training institute began greeting me in the hallways.

Sigh.

Then there was the day when I was stripped nearly naked, trying on a wedding dress. My quip was… Read full post »

Sarah Kluntz's Facebook status read:  Happy Thanksgiving, Americanos! Here in Portugal there is a different word for this holiday. They call it “Thursday”.

My Hungarian “co-mother[¹]” asked me at the very end, “Just what is Thanksgiving about?”

This was the… Read full post »

1993. The smell of human flesh and colors of the outfits reminded me of a hot, humid Brazilian bus, any joyfulness dampened by Lusitania dourness, dolefulness? Gloom? While spending more than enough time in a line to conceive an entire family, I mused on the best adjective to describe the Portuguese… Read full post »

Since I went free-lance I hadn’t paid any social security taxes. I mean, I kept wondering when they were going to catch up with me. As the story below indicates, only posthumously if left to their own means.

The question is: their death or mine?

But then a friend… Read full post »

Where was I on 9/11?  Abroad. At home, overseas. I’d been living, had gotten married and had had two American- children. I worked at an English Language training institute where I was one of the two token Americans.

I was more irritable than… Read full post »

Knowing the name of an object, exoterically speaking, is supposed to give you power over it.  Years ago a therapist had me read the Wizard of Earthsea when there was some wonderful “label” that I was wanting to avoid, “adult child of an alcoholic”, “child ab… Read full post »

Ice cream. Vanilla. Mayfield’s. Zap 8 seconds

Once the progeny had flown, responsible (or not) for the procurement of their own grub and dental bills, the Keeper no longer had reason for denying the Master of his sweets. His favorite: Ice cream. Vanilla. Mayfield’s. Zapped 8  … Read full post »