Dream the Night, Seize the Day
March 15, 2011, by Christie Healey
Dreamtime Sisters by Colleen Wallace Nungari
After being jolted awake, thousands of miles from the epicenter, Christie remains alert and open to dreams of all kinds
It is very hard to write this post. We are all profoundly disturbed by what is happening in the world and I feel puny in my attempts to sort emotions and thoughts coherently. Perhaps I should just simply tell you what happened to me in the last few days.
At around 1:00 a.m. Thursday night, I jolted awake, heart pounding and feeling a sense of complete dread. I was not having a nightmare I was in the middle of a lovely dream visit with my Dad. I could not imagine why I had received an urgent message to wake up. I reached over and turned on my radio and heard the first reports from Japan. Immediately I thought of Freddy in Hawaii and the threat of a tsunami. The next thing I grabbed was the phone. Freddy was in no immediate danger; it would take hours for the tsunami to reach Hawaii, but in that moment I needed to connect with him and know he would be prepared. Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Christie Healey, spirit | 9 Comments
Things I’m Sick Of
March 9, 2011, by Connie Stetson
What’s got Connie so worked up? So many reasons to be ticked off — but in a good way.
The Oscars sucked this year. I do not like being disappointed with my Oscars. Whichever producer made the misguided judgment that Anne Hathaway and James Franco had the chops to host the Oscars really blew it and I hope he got sent to some Cyber-Siberia to think long and hard about pandering to a youth market.
It got me thinking about things I’m sick of:
• Appealing to a Younger Demographic (re: The Oscars)
When did we quit valuing sophistication, grace under fire, wisdom, class, confidence and wit? The young should be aspiring to be us, not the other way around. To paraphrase my pal Frank, we are the “A-dults” they are the “B-dults”. Get some real experience then we can talk about you being the Master of Ceremonies for something beyond Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards.
• My “Coexist” bumper sticker — I’ve just taken the stupid thing off the back of my car — so use a turnout and get out of my way!
• Bristol Palin and her autobiography — What is she? 19? If she can write a book about getting knocked up as a teenager, then so can all my cousins on my father’s side. Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Connie Stetson, Humor, Rants | 30 Comments
Pondering the Nature of Duo
March 2, 2011, by Melissa Howden
Positive Negative, painting by Jesse Rinyu
In an effort to understand her mother, Melissa peels back layers of her own heart
In the summer of 1963, my mother left my father. I was just six and my brother turned three a few short weeks later. Thirty-six years, several boyfriends and one more divorce later, my mother admitted to me that the love of her life had been my father.
My mother’s admission about the love of her life was stunning and surprising. I asked her why; given that my father was the love of her life she left him? She replied, “He was young and stupid and always had something to prove.” I wondered what 20-something (man or woman) is not young and stupid with things to prove?
A year after this conversation my mother died. I discovered then the only things in her safe deposit box were the letters my father had written to her asking, and then pleading with her to come back. I cried then for my mother, not for her death but for the fact of her pride — the pride, which kept her from the love of her life for most of her life, which by all measures was not a particularly happy one. Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Relationships | 20 Comments
Smart and Hot
February 16, 2011, by Cathy Fischer
Cathy finds a beautiful day in the bay, sunny, cloudy and confusing
There’s a new girl in town: a new weather girl. Yes, they still use that term. Even though she’s a full-grown woman and an ordained meteorologist, she’s the new Bay Area “girl” and she’s H-O-T.
Meet Christina Loren, Today in the Bay’s morning cup of sexy; and boy does she pour it on. Case in point: see screenshot above. While she’s got a rockin’ bod (if you’re into the Barbie look), she’s actually got brains too and a fun on-air personality, but what she’s selling isn’t what’s behind her botoxed forehead or what’s coming from her bee stung lips; she’s selling what sells, S-E-X. Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Cathy Fischer, Media, Pop Culture | 16 Comments
The Muddle of Middle Age
February 9, 2011, by Prudence Baird
A telephone survey has Prudence coming to grips with middle age and beyond
Recently, a marketing firm contacted me looking for a Baby Boomer willing to talk candidly about a variety of subjects ranging from plastic surgery to (ahem) performance-enhancing supplements.
Never shy about broadcasting my opinions, I agreed. I am, after all, a member of the me generation that was promised 15 minutes of fame. Each. Never mind that the infant terrible who made this promise is long dead, so can’t be held accountable. And talking to a telemarketer isn’t exactly fame, per se.
The thirtysomething professional on the other end of the phone reminded me of myself—albeit a two-decade-earlier self, when I, too, thought of age 50 as an impossibly faraway place that would somehow recede into the distance the closer I got to it. Read more
Filed Under Ageism, All Posts, Prudence Baird | 21 Comments
Love in the Time of Insurance
February 2, 2011, by Carine Fabius
Is Carine looking for love in all the wrong places? Or could angels be guiding the way?
A study I read revealed that patients who feel their doctors care about them tend to recuperate and heal faster than those who feel like they’ve just taken a quick hop on-and-off a conveyor belt. Trying to find love from your healthcare provider is an iffy and trying proposition; and I’m here to report on my recent routine annual physical examination with a general practitioner, courtesy of my brand new HMO plan. Did you say $40 co-payment for all office visits and lab tests? I was already in love (even though I resent not being able to go to my regular GP and gynecologist because they’re not in the damn network).
My visit with the doctor went like this: in the less than 15 minutes it took for me to fill out the requisite forms, I observed no less than three pharmaceutical salesladies trot in to dole out free samples to the doctor, who, in fact did offer me a drug for osteoporosis before deciding whether or not I even needed a bone density test. I think I’m pretty in the know about the reciprocal back-scratching that goes on in the medical field, but I must admit to being kind of shocked when one of the salesladies in question whipped out her appointment book and notepad to take lunch orders for how many people did you say are working in the office now? Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Carine Fabius, Health | 11 Comments
The Heart of It
January 26, 2011, by Melissa Howden
Melissa reflects on the legacy of separation and the ways in which we cope
Some week’s back, the cover of The New York Times had a picture of two young boys tearfully clinging to their father who was returning to one war zone or another after a leave. The look of panic and pain on the younger boy’s face haunts me.
I have a similar photograph from 70 years ago on the day my grandfather left to go to war. In the photograph my eight-year-old father appears more stoic than the boys in the NY Times but I know from letters and first hand reports that the one photograph of that day does not tell the whole story.
I will always wonder if the father in The New York Times photograph comes home. I know my grandfather didn’t and that legacy of separation has been passed down in my family. This is the story of countless families throughout history, changed by the legacy of loss at the hand of war, economics, borders, political posturing and empire building. Read more
Filed Under All Posts, Melissa Howden, Relationships | 14 Comments
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