Periodically

Avoiding the Mountaintop

Mar 302011

I was a fair skier in high school, and my gym teacher, who spent many afternoons in our chalet in the mountains sipping plum brandy with Father after a run through the powder, signed me up for the school ski team. I loved playing volleyball and basketball, even though I was not particularly good, as [...]

Trippin' on 'shrooms

Mar 252011

Father drove our orange Russian-made Lada across the rickety one-way bridge over a spring and parked it in the meadow along the dirt road, making sure there was enough room for a horse-drawn carriage or a tractor to squeeze by. My cousin, Mira, and I unloaded our backpacks and Father carried the checkered bag full [...]

The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Mar 182011

I am the oldest of three children, and when I turned 20, I was ceremoniously presented with a shortest sibling award, having my brother and sister pat my head Benny Hill style. I was not a grateful recipient by any means, coming up with every “small is better” cliché I could dig up from the vast [...]

Getting the Boot

Mar 162011

When I was twenty three, I traveled to Italy to spend a month with my friend, Stefania and her family in Abbruzzo. The Di Falco family owned a hotel in Teramo, and after we drove for a couple of hours north from the Leonardo Da Vinci airport in Rome, we stopped there for a meal. [...]

Give a Girl a Fish...

Mar 142011

College Kritter earned that name well before starting college. The state of Ohio offered all high-school juniors with a GPA over 3.5 a chance to attend a community college, get their regular high school requirements met, and also finish off some college core classes. During her junior and senior years of high school, she was [...]

Waves

Mar 122011

Last night’s dinner left me in particularly good spirits. I defrosted garlic and lemon marinated pork shoulder pieces left over from several days ago when I prepared Souvlaki. Even though the weather is at its most glamorous here in Southern California, I wanted a hearty, saucy dish. Husband was clearly relieved when he found out [...]