Here's to Happy Women...

On an exceptionally dark night recently , I was driving home from an appointment and missed the easy right turn into my neighborhood. The SUV in front of me — and the family within — had distracted me. I guess I wanted to see what was playing in their cozy little “backseat” cinema. Let me correct that statement: I couldn’t miss what was playing – it was unmistakable and annoying. Sure, I’ve seen “Finding Nemo” before...just not front and center while driving down the road. To get back home, I had to drive an extra half-mile, wait to make a u-turn, and then drive another half-mile back, and then wait again to make the final left turn. All because of a clown fish who couldn’t find his way back home. Irony at its best — or rather, worst. When I told my husband about my distraction, he laughed and said that he sees this quite often. He also tol d me about a recent television program he watched. He described a scenario with a family driving through a gorgeous national park, with the k...

In one of his classic comedy routines, George Carlin says that a house is "just a pile of stuff with a cover on it," and, "If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time." I see his point and I raise him one. I think a house is also a guardian for our "space," which is just as important as the stuff we cram into that space. This routine reminds me of a close friend that I have known for many years. She can't commit to marriage or cohabitation. Why? I believe it's a "space" issue, as in " my space is my space." She is unwilling (or unable) to share her space on a permanent basis. This "unwilling to commit" fri end owns a nice large house, and has for quite a few years. She is in a long-term monogamous relationship with a significant other who also owns a nice large home. On a weekly basis, this couple goes between two houses. One night here, two nig...

Can you imagine living to be 97-years old? Not sick, not ailing...not lonely? Living in good health? Living a good life? Living this way for most of those 97-years? I can't, but my mother-in-law, Marvelous Marvel, did just that. I was only around for 15 of those years, but I wouldn't have missed them for the world. True, the last few years were hard on us all...but that still left 90-plus great years. It's taken me over a year to able to write this piece, but I made a promise to Marvel . I told her on that last Thanksgiving Day, just a week before her death, that I would write about Marvelous Marvel and remind myself and others what it was like while she was in the world. I promised her that I would never forget her. If I am not as wry or witty...or if there are not as many "read-between-the-line" innuendos as usual, it is out of respect for this woman who touched my life so deeply. During the last five-years of her wonderful odyssey, I had several conv...