Our daughter-in-law gave birth on Friday night to their third child – and our third grandchild. We’re planning a trip to see them soon, and I’m hoping there won’t be any foul weather, new COVID variances or restrictions, or other issues that could get in the way of our plans. It wouldn’t be the first time. Their first child was born almost three years ago, in the middle of January. We gave them a bit of time to get settled into their new family dynamic [...]
Our last Toastmasters meeting had a theme of “Trick-or-Treat.” As the Table Topics Master at the meeting, I decided to have a costume party as the focus of my questions. The purpose of Table Topics is to help people learn to think on their feet and organize their thoughts quickly. The Table Topics Master will ask an open-ended, no-right-or-wrong-answer type of question, and then call on a member to respond. They have to talk for one to two minutes, and responses can range from serious [...]
“What world events have played defining roles in your life? What memories do you have of them? How have they influenced you?” These were among the discussion questions at my last Book Club meeting. The book we read was When We Left Cuba, an historical novel set in the early ’60s. Among the events in the novel were the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assassination of JFK – events that many members of our Book Club remembered [...]
I don’t know if it has anything to do with the students I worked with and wrote about in my last blog, or the college students I – along with several other members of my Toastmasters club – recently helped prepare for a career-oriented Elevator Pitch competition. But I’m getting ready to go back to school – sort of. And I’m really excited about it. Also, just a little bit nervous. Like many people, I consider myself a lifelong learner, and have always enjoyed the [...]
It was gloomy and rainy here for most of the past week – to the point where we had some lakes forming in the low spots in our yard, and the storm was regularly knocking out our satellite TV reception. When the sun came out briefly toward the end of the week, it looked so strange I almost called the authorities to report seeing a UFO. Gloomy weather usually doesn’t put me in a gloomy mood, but it was definitely heading in that direction, especially [...]
We were returning home from Chicago after attending a family funeral, when one of the car’s warning lights went on. A rear tire was losing air. We weren’t exactly in the middle of nowhere, but it sure felt like it. We were somewhere between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in an area of mountains and trees and a number of miles between towns. We finally reached the next exit, and pulled into the gas station closest to the interstate. My husband put air in the tire [...]
“I hope no one minds if I use this mail list to share something,” a friend wrote. Spoiler alert: we didn’t. It was a member of our neighborhood book club, and she was using the book club email list to share her memories of 9/11. She was a teacher, living in Fairfax County at the time. At the end of first period, an announcement came over the intercom about what happened, and they immediately started the process of getting buses to the school so they [...]
She was 102, but I never thought of her as old, or even “elderly.” At a family wedding more than 10 years ago, as several of us were talking and catching up on each other’s family news, she walked by and stopped to chat for a few minutes. As she continued on, steady and sure-footed with the help of her cane, one of my brothers-in-law said, “I hope I’m in that good of shape when I’m 90.” My response was, “Heck, I hope I’m in [...]
Rarely have I ever used my column or blog for a public service announcement, especially one on a controversial topic, but I’m going to make an exception this week. If you haven’t already done so, PLEASE get vaccinated against COVID-19. If not for yourself, then for your loved ones, for your children and grandchildren, for your friends and neighbors. The people who would miss you most if you succumbed to the disease, and the people for whom your heart would break if you lost them [...]