Wollemi pines and Megabats~

I am in Sydney, Australia, visiting my daughter, Meraiah, her husband, Tim, and my youngest grandchild, Morgan. I left San Francisco last Monday night, late, arriving in Sydney on a Wednesday morning. Somehow or another Tuesday was completely bypassed on my journey. I gather I will make it up on my return flight, arriving in

Stress: My Former Constant Companion~

I suppose this has been written about ad nauseam, but it really is true. I am referring to the absence of stress after living under its constant grip for a long period of time. As Richard Selzer says about starving to death, no one who is doing it can tell you what it feels like;

At Large and At Small at IRB~

The editors of the Internet review of Books asked me to review Anne Fadiman’s latest book At Large and At Small: Familiar essays for their March issue. What a gift. I loved this book and highly recommend it to any and all readers. Fadiman is witty, curious, intellectually stimulating, and a joy to read. You

A Big, Big Thinker~

This morning I was reading the NY Times online, as I do every morning, and I ran across an article about Barack Obama’s mother. I think by now we have all heard about his father and how he came from Kenya and died young, about his pastor and the outrageous things he has said, and

Page 123~

A friend of mine who has a wonderful blog sent me a continuation game. Rules: 1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more. 2. Open it to page 123. 3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down. 4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same. This is from “At Large

Leap Year~

February always seems like the longest month of the year to me. Why is that? And this year there’s an extra day to boot; it’s leap year. I have mixed feelings about leap year. On the one hand it’s just one more day in an already too long month, but on the other hand I

Me, Obaachan~

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swfOn February 20, 2008 I became a grandmother– or obaachan in Japanese– for the first time. Little Hannah Foley Oba was born after six hours of labor to her proud parents, Sam Foley and Yuka Oba in Gifu, Japan. She weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces. I have never wanted the title “grandmother,” feeling

To MFA, or Not To MFA~

I belong to an Internet group of writers, some of whom have applied themselves to higher education in the form of an MFA in creative writing, and some, like me, are learning by the seat of their pants. I have always wondered if I was simply floundering in the dark and it would behoove me

MOPT II- The Second Half of the Story~

Undeterred by our previous failure to obtain our licenses in a single visit, and truthfully I can’t think of anything is this country that we’ve ever accomplished in one visit if it has to do with an agency of the Costa Rican government, Alan and I forged on. Last week it was necessary to go

MOPT- Half of the Story~

“Yes, this is the right office, but you must go to the Banco Nacional and pay 10,000 colones each before I can renew these driver’s licenses,” said the nice man behind the glass partition separating us. “And anyway, our system is down right now. I won’t be able to do anything for you today.” This