With the breathless anticipation of the impasse between the millionaire football players and billionaire owners nearing an end, I'd like to share a little story about my experience with the former -- and how, my darling daughter Lauren, in DC now on an internship, is a chip off the scrappy block. I was a video producer for a creative agency until three weeks ago and I had the great fortune (I mean this sincerely) of working on one of the most high-profile accounts in … [Read more...]
DC, Where Quarters Are King
July 19, 2011 By
Getting ready to roll out of our nation's capitol and it's been alternately fun and frustrating. Some lessons learned: 1. Me and my 86-pound mutt can indeed stowaway in the women's dorm for three days. 2. The money I saved on hotel bills was made up for in parking fines outside the building. 3. Chicken bones abound. 4. My daughter is as scrappy as I am. More on that later. 5. People wear ridiculous shoes - both tourists and the millions of office workers on the … [Read more...]
Saturday, a.k.a. Shudderday
July 18, 2011 By
I've been so lucky in my travels so far, sunny weather, cordial people. Well, the guy who nearly ran me over on Fulton Street in Brooklyn with his BMW wasn't too friendly. But overall, I have no reason to have the heebie-jeebies. You know, nervous, like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But I do. Damnit, I do. Saturday, I had the shudders bad. I was about 23 miles northeast of Baltimore when traffic on I-95 came to an absolute standstill. A wreck, … [Read more...]
A Little Piece of My Heart In Her Water Bowl
July 16, 2011 By
I’ve already gotten used to the rhythm, of Brooklyn, on Lefferts Place, in this particular corner of this teeming city -- the morning sounds; the sidewalk construction, kids shooting hoops out on the sidewalk, mothers pushing babies in strollers that prattle and clack on uneven pavement, cars blasting hip hop, planes on final descent into LaGuardia, the phantom whoosh of the subway, people walking by talking into cell phones, or thin air. And these are not even folks … [Read more...]
Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs
July 14, 2011 By
There were many, you know. To ignore them would be folly. One just has to be open to receiving them. Of course the first sign, the epiphany day, was like a billboard for a Triple XXX Adult Book store on a rural Missouri highway. (Why do they have so many adult book stores along Missouri highways? It's more prevalent than meth these days.) But Libby's dramatic interp with the powerless fence, was most assuredly, a sign from the universe. Then, they became more subtle. … [Read more...]
Into the Light
July 13, 2011 By
I'm in Brooklyn, trying to write in a hipster coffee shop, with alternative music blaring, where hipster types (if you've been to Brooklyn lately, you know what I mean) have flocked to sip iced coffee and get out of the heat. I don't blame them, beastly hot here. Libby's at my son Pat's apartment around the corner. I was never so glad to see one of my kids in all my life! He's working today, no wifi at his place unless you hang out the window... so I gave up on that … [Read more...]
Akron Rocks!
July 11, 2011 By
Late in the day Saturday, after my “holy Toledo !” Motel 6 night from hell, I’m looking for a dog park in Akron to give Lib a chance to stretch her legs. We hit the trifecta, as it was not only a nice, clean, freshly mown park, with really nice folks and friendly dogs, it was a beautiful evening as well. Course we had to cruise the requisite “every city USA” main drag. Market Street, I believe. They are all painfully the same, cut-and-paste America, where an eager … [Read more...]
Bad Boy, Bad Boy, Watcha Gonna Do?
July 9, 2011 By
Sunset just west of Toledo last night and I was feeling all zenny, enjoying the late afternoon shadows laid across all manner of barns, big and small, old and new, red and weathered beyond all palette recognition and my GPS told me I just eleven miles out from my Motel 6 stop for the night. Remember, I’m on a budget, as in: I don’t have a job. Son Pat had booked it for me, as I was too busy trying to get out of the snarl of traffic in Chicago, (bad taste after a lovely … [Read more...]
Chicago, Chicago, It’s A Helluva Town
July 9, 2011 By
Libby digs it. In my next life, when I’m independently wealthy and can afford a condo in Chicago, NYC or L.A., she’ll fit right into the urban pace, a.k.a., nine walks per day. Seriously. That’s how many times I had to take her outside to convince her that it was indeed okay to unleash her innards. I understand, humans get kinda blocked on the road too, or so I’ve heard. She got it, eventually, like seven blocks from the condo. But what she really thought was that I was … [Read more...]
House By the Side of the Road
July 7, 2011 By
My mom, Beverly G. Garcia, who always insisted we include the “G” in her name so as not to mistake her for just any Beverly Garcia, died five years ago on July 5th, the day I launched this journey. I miss her and think about her every single day. I didn’t plan “driveway” day to commemorate the five-year anniversary of her passing, that’s kinda morbid, but since it worked out that way, it seemed rather fitting that my day of departure coincided with her day of departure … [Read more...]
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