Category Life & Times
The biggest misstep I made planning my trip was not understanding the topography of Vieux Québec. My lovely hotel was at the tippy-top of the upper town, higher even than the Frontenac, which meant that every outing involved going down,… Continue Reading →
Building on my trip to the forest, the next day I continued nature bathing at Montmorency Falls (aka Chutes de Montmorency) located on the eastern edge of Quebec City. This trip fell just before autumn colors, but I got a… Continue Reading →
It took me almost 20 years from the time I bought a travel book for Québec — so long ago guidebooks were still relevant — to setting foot in the province. But I made it! And while I’m not the… Continue Reading →
Last year my long-term relationship evaporated overnight. While I can’t say there were no warning signs, they were certainly faint. Silver linings from that have been similarly faint. But one upside has emerged in the wake of another painful loss… Continue Reading →
Yesterday a friend was telling me how computer games only render the rooms we are in to save memory, and that our brains aren’t so different. When we encounter something different or enter a new space we force our minds… Continue Reading →
Whoo! Back from a 1840 mile, 12 day solo driving trip home to Tucson. What a bittersweet trip, one of tears and mortality and also of life-affirming friendship and beauty and nature. The universe really came together on this one… Continue Reading →
When I said in Part I that this wasn’t a story about opening my heart, that wasn’t entirely true. There is one place my heart lacked compassion: the criminal justice system. My last bastion of conservatism was the belief that… Continue Reading →
When I was growing up, Tucson seemed small and conservative to me. Then college took me to Bible-belt Indiana and I discovered what small and conservative truly is. In hindsight, I’d have been hard pressed to pick a worse fit… Continue Reading →
I relish telling the story of how I used to be a registered Republican. It’s good for shock value, considering that today I’m a flaming California liberal! Even better, I was a Teen Age Republican (TAR) in Arizona, a state… Continue Reading →
There was a time when I had friends with very different political beliefs. Of course! It would be narrow-minded and dogmatic to exclude people simply because we vote differently. Right? And this worked because, in theory, we all wanted people… Continue Reading →
I first visited Tadich as a child on my first family trip to San Francisco. Over the decades we have returned there time after time for local classics like cioppino, hangtown fry, and petrale sole. Tadich is a San Francisco… Continue Reading →
I have always found the desert Southwest immensely calming. Originally I assumed it was simply the comfortable feeling of being back in my childhood home — it never felt right when I lived in states without mountains — but on… Continue Reading →
Recently I stumbled on a forgotten family gem, personal histories from WWII written by two of my grandfather’s brothers. It was an opportunity to learn about uncles I barely knew and get personal insights into a defining event of the… Continue Reading →