What is it about the French accent? Am I alone in believing it to be the sexiest accent on the planet? There's something there, whatever it is, that makes me feel weak in its presence. I hear it and immediately feel like I must be missing something in… Read full post »

My mother is delusional. She lives in an independent, retirement home and believes that someone named Bill comes into her room every day and moves things around. When I picked her up to spend the weekend with me, I asked her if she packed her slippers. In a… Read full post »

Tears can come at the most surprising times. When I took my kids to the public library to see Mr. Bubbles perform tricks, I didn't think my eyes would well up with tears at the end of his performance, but there they were. After an hour-long show of turning… Read full post »

I'm too tired to pick up the Christmas debris. Wrapping paper is scattered here and there on the floor. Pine needles are falling. Unpaid bills are sitting on my desk. Having eaten enough food, I may just go get another candy cane brownie. Numbness has taken… Read full post »

We grew up next door to a bully. We moved to our house on Fifth Avenue in Berea, Ohio when I was five years old and I lived there until I was eighteen. Even though we barely spoke to the Mehozoniks, several remarkable incidents occurred between us over the… Read full post »

I stood at the door deciding whether or not to go. I wanted to frame some photos and I had a little time on my hands to go on this errand. I'll just do it, I finally decided. That snap decision to go to the store at that… Read full post »

My therapist told me the other day to pay more attention to what I like to do, which is to write. I told him I feel empty when I'm not doing anything creative. But finding a subject to write about is tricky. He told me not to wait… Read full post »

I went to my 20^th high school reunion, seven years ago. That weekend I saw a couple of hundred people I had not seen in 20 years. In the seven years that have passed since that weekend, I have thought many, many times about the impact it had on/… Read full post »

I hired a man here in Belgrade a half a dozen times or so to mow my lawn.  I could do it myself, but there's a steep hill in our front lawn which scares me when I think about pushing a powered machine down it.  Also, to be perfectly honest, I'm… Read full post »

It was the Belgrade Marathon.  I am not an athlete, but my friend is.  Did I want to go? she asked.  Cheer her on?  Bring the boys and watch the runners?  Of course I did, but I hate crowds.  I know my children don’t like crowds.  I worried we would get/… Read full post »

I think it’s really great when we are able to admit to our shortcomings, to ourselves and to anyone else who wants to listen.  I’ll get to my husband in a minute, but take me, for example.  I have always been a bit of a space cadet.  Friends (and enemies) referred/… Read full post »

Since arriving as a diplomat’s spouse in Serbia almost two years ago, I have looked for ways of connecting to my foreign surroundings.  I took language lessons, and use it whenever I go to the market or see the guard at the end of the road.  Sometimes I try to avoid/… Read full post »

My husband left for America today.  He set his alarm for 3:30 a.m.  It never went off and he sprung out of bed at 4:45.  He ran down the hallway, down the stairs, out the front door, and down the walkway to the street below to tell the driver who was waiti… Read full post »

My father’s mood was so unpredictable, we never knew what to expect.  As complex as the volumes of The Great Books of the Western World which he revered, he was a multi-faceted man whom I loved, respected, feared, admired, felt anger toward, was embarrassed by, and with whom I shared a/… Read full post »

At the beginning of March, especially during the hype of the Academy Awards, I recall the day I went on a walk in my neighborhood on a mid-February afternoon.  I walked briskly but carefully.  I was carrying a fragile load and I did not want to fall. 

A woman stood… Read full post »

My new favorite thing?  That would have to be, hands down, watching my almost seven-year-old boy play his new violin.  He owns that instrument and cradles it like a baby he's had all his little life, even though when he pulls the bow across the strings, it kind of hurts my ears.… Read full post »

              All week long, I’ve been hyper-conscious of my boys.  I was recently told a story of a woman who lost her seven-year-old son.  He died suddenly of unexpected heart failure.  The story has stayed with m/… Read full post »

I am standing in the kitchen after dinner pulling the meat off the carcass of a chicken, dropping the bones into a stockpot.  My husband and two sons are in the living room playing Old Maid, my youngest determined to pull himself out of loser status where he landed, twice,/… Read full post »

To go bowling in Serbia, you have to pass the Roma-gypsy camps.  You go under a bridge where some of their homes are set up, then drive the length of about two New York City blocks until you arrive at Delta City, the shopping mall. 

We point out the homes… Read full post »

Characters:  Mom, Dad, Five-year-old, Six-year-old

Setting:  Dinner Table

Five y.o.:  Mommy, will you marry me? (Head in mom's lap, muffled tone.)

Mom:  I'm already married.

Dad:  Did he just ask you to marry him?

Mom:  Yeah.  Pass the salt, please.

Dad:  I was… Read full post »

He really didn’t like sex with me.  And he really, really didn’t want kids.  He called me “mom” accidentally, one too many times.   

The trouble was, I was crazy about him.  To further the trouble, he was crazy about me.  After nine ye/… Read full post »

Funny,embarrassing 5.

 1.  Being invited on stage at a folk concert to have the musician sing a song about me, using my name.  I told him it was Jane.  I was five.

2.  A bird once pooped on me.  My friend laughed uncontrollably.

3.  My high-healed shoe fell ont… Read full post »

This morning I went for a walk in the woods in the rain wearing my new, black, pink polka-dotted rubber rain boots.  On a whim the other day, I bought them.  I am 45 years old and these are the first pair of rain boots I have ever owned.  They were/… Read full post »

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Not exactly something "I made", but something Belgrade, Serbia made:  History, today.