I don’t go anywhere now without first checking my chin. There are tweezers everywhere — in my kitchen, in my car, in my makeup bag, in my bathroom drawer. Ya tu sabes. Less than a month before 45, I find myself wondering how in the hell this happened. I know it is not an original […]

Our 8-year-old got her first pair of glasses this week. It was awesome and, for me, a little bit heartbreaking. She kept telling me all that she can now see — the grass isn’t a fuzzy blanket, there is a girl’s image on the Wendy’s sign, and hey, there are words on that thing hanging […]

This essay is part of the first #HablaTalk writing prompt series I am doing with Latina Bloggers Connect. They’re a way to inspire the writer, bring out the video star, and promote the community of talented voices. Check out the community and join in. A few weeks ago, I escaped on an overnight to Atlanta […]

Maria tentatively spoke up. “Mama, her voice sounds kind of funny,” she said nodding toward the stereo. The voice she heard belongs to a pop singer without much range, a young woman who once melted down publicly and is attempting to come back. The voice on her latest single is most definitely not completely human. […]

Hallmark came to Nashville last week and I snagged an invite to a small gathering they had with local bloggers. It was mostly conversation about celebrating the little things in life, and getting to know a little bit more about how they go about creating the cards and products that help us express words and […]

In the last days of 1989, when I was 22, I wrote a newspaper story quoting experts predicting the trends for the 1990s. Good-bye greedy and mean 1980s, the experts said. Hello, kindness toward man and old person. Ha! What the hell do experts know? And, certainly, those shoulder-pad, big-hair wearing experts of 1989 did not know […]

We had a dinner party for 10 adults and 8 children. Among us: A vegetarian who eats fish. A vegetarian who does not eat fish. A man who cannot eat dairy. A man allergic to meat. A woman allergic to corn. A child who is allergic to nuts. A child who was once allergic to […]

So, I have been playing hookie un poco. It’s why there hasn’t been much action around here. Around mid-day — when I already have put in at least six hours at the computer — I think about all that I still could do, and I say: “Pal’ carajo.” I head to the pool. The water […]

We took to the woods yesterday. Maria, the cat, the guineas and me. I brought the Flip and as you will see by her expression at the end, she was not happy about my messing with the spiritual experience she was having. The song she is singing is a Taize meditation song, Veni Sancte Spiritus, […]

This is usually my season of bitching. It starts the minute the thermometer begins to regularly dip below 65. It has been raining a lot here, so the bitching started earlier than usual. “You’re cold? Why?” my husband asks. What do you mean, why? I just am. He’s never cold. He has Pioneer blood. Me, […]