The first thing I remember writing was a story about a clock who had a mind and would communicate to the teacher about the goings on when they were alone. I was nine.

The next thing I wrote was a love story about a girl would wanted a boyfriend.… Read full post »

The nice thing about OS is sometimes you get great feedback and then you can dive in again. This essay is also  my tiny hypocrisy-okay my big hypocrisy.

My daughter will tell you, I am a big hypocrite when it comes to my diet. In public, at meetings and such, I will tout the… Read full post »

Dude! Don't text when you're giving your mom a hug! Read full post »

I've discovered for me, writing is like eating. When I don't do it. I get weak. I get confused. I start having dreams that I'm lost. I feel a general malaise that if I don't catch turns into depression. I start thinking I should be doing other things: cooking, being… Read full post »

     In the movie, The Sixth Sense (one of the few movies I wasn't able to second guess) the little boy discovers with the help of a psychologist that he can talk to dead people--and that's okay--because nine times out of ten the dead are just like the living-- trying… Read full post »

     There are times in when my writing garden becomes a fallow field and when this happens,  I write about writing--a sacrifice to the literary gods--that maybe, just maybe they will set me on my true path again. I'm still waiting. So, in the i… Read full post »

When I was a senior in high school, my parents started buying meat off a truck that chugged around the nieghborhood --an ice cream truck for grown ups.  It was chocked full of steak, chops, mystery fish and the like.

So now, my mom's over- cooked, dried out piece of meat that… Read full post »

...was just the other day, actually.  I was visiting a new establishment and the music was awesome! The energy was alive in that place. It was definitely a party atmosphere, bells ringing, lights flashing and the place was packed.

I'm telling you, the music was just the best! It… Read full post »

I go to Ingrid’s Kitchen, a local German restaurant and sit there like an odd girl out at my own prom.  This is supposedly my place—my people but I sit there uncomfortably, desparately wishing someone would sit with me and clue me in.  I am half German but this is not… Read full post »

One of my fondest smelling memories was opening my metal Star Trek lunch box and having the familar smell of room temperature baloney with wilted lettuce on Rainbo bread. I know I've had millions of such sandwiches but my King Of Cold Cuts was Oscar Mayer's Salami For Beer. Now,… Read full post »

By the time I was 18, I had over a hundred affairs--it's true. My "first time" was quite by accident. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and then BINGO!

Soon I was hooked. I had to have it. And have it, I… Read full post »

Wow, the recent rash of bullying related suicides and related traumas frankly have got me scratching my head.  How can we tell our kids to play nice in the play ground when "playing nice" is for losers in the real world?

"We're the best country in the whole world!" "The… Read full post »

Dedicated to my mother, Ruth Fulde who was killed in a traffic accident when I was four.  Happy Mother's day, Mommy.

The dream always starts the same: her voice. I hear it before I see anything. It drifts in my hears and through my body like ghost smoke. In… Read full post »

I was Homeless In New York City: Poetry Workshop:

You'll learn from professional poets and homeless people how to survive the streets and then write about it in lines and lines of naked, needy poetry. You'll also learn what to wear when you're homeless, what to eat out of trash cans… Read full post »

He was born of an American mother and African father and has grown to do so many wonderful things so far. Each day is a struggle, but he comes out shining with that perfect smile and always with lessons learned.

He has brought so much joy to so many people… Read full post »

Well, it’s American Idol time again, folks. The time when we love to watch our young tender ones crash and burn for America’s entertainment. Where are these kids’ family and friends when they need them most?

We’ve been educated to talk to our kids about a great many things: D… Read full post »

Now, get your mind out of the gutter--the cock sauce of which I speak is that Thai Hot sauce with the Rooster on the bottle. You know the one.  Never thought about it very much. I mean I'm not the addictive type. I don't drink, or do drugs and am getting a… Read full post »

This was originally posted early on as Friday Night At Babas --but hardly anyone read it. Perhaps people didn't realize it was about making perogies and eating periogies. So here is the reprint and recipe:

The first time I saw Baba, my stepmother's grandmother was in 1968. I was six… Read full post »

Okay, my daughter and family are off to Ghana for three weeks and I need to cope! My strategy is food so I hope you enjoy my posts. 

 Unfortunately because of the heart conditon, diabetes, etal, : I am supposed to be on a low salt, low carb, no sugar, no white food,… Read full post »

You know how you have some friends who are leaders and others who are followers? ---I followed the followers, at thirteen making sure no one thought I was weird was my vocation.  Trying to make sure I had the good opinion of family and friends was a goose I spent all… Read full post »

It is Fall apparently

but something is growing

fresh but small-- new and tender

just a wish

crowded in between the lines

of so many lovely conversations

So lets watch our step

and water it a little

a forest is never grown

from a flood

It seems cold to… Read full post »

My sister’s hands are magic
She holds her wand of sunshine
With white porcelain fingers
And blue moonbeams drop
Butterfly flowers on the page

She’s from this desert mountain place
But I ask her if she’s from Eden
Or a forest where unicorns live
She looks at me funny and says,
“… Read full post »

 The first time I found out the world was going to end , I was ten. That was when a big white school but came to our house to take us to Vacation Bible School. We sang Jesus Loves Me, Onward Christian Soldiers, and I don't remember much else except the… Read full post »

As many know, cutting and pasting on OS is an exercise in frustration!  The following is the way the essay should have read without the repeating passages.  I want to thank HenryR and L In The Southeast for the head's up.

My sister Sylvia could have been a model except she… Read full post »