I have called many states and even a few countries “home” over the years. Every place I’ve lived has proven to have its own unique idea of hospitality, especially when that hospitality is directed toward strangers or mere acquaintances. No people have come close to the boundless generosity of Romanians in the early 1990s, who […]

I concede. My friends who were shocked by my choice of the South as a place to settle were right. The first year and a half that I lived here – unemployed, doing freelance writing from home, building connections in my community (with nothing more taxing than meeting people for coffee at The Grind), unleashing my […]

Noises bother me. I wish they didn’t but they do. I realize it’s my problem so I generally keep it to myself (except when I’m with my poor husband), but some days my head is pounding from sounds that grate on me. In my last job, I was subjected to a symphony of gum-cracking and […]

Now that I’m a working woman again, I had to buy my Thanksgiving groceries today. On a Saturday. The last time I did that, I lived in Marin County, California. The difference startled me. In Marin, grocery shoppers are cut-throat any day, but especially before Thanksgiving. Patrons whipped their carts through the aisles aggressively, mirroring […]