March to April

In March, I went to the computer to subscribe to the New Yorker, and found out one of my students had been shot. He was dead. I was having another one of my seizures of certainty that I could not be an educated person, a writer, a worthwhile human being, without subscribing to the New […]

Forgetfulness

I finally visited my grandmother, showed her my photos of Rome. She asked me three different times if I had seen the pope. She’s trying to politely inquire about my recent vacation. But her brain is going, and she loses access to her “I just said that” file, and even the “grandchildren’s names” file, from time to time.

… in a Box.

I was disappointed to learn that the pope is not keeping God in a box at the Vatican. Or if he is, that it was not part of the tour. I didn’t realize it until I had been there, but my half-Catholic blood is always secretly hoping that the Catholics have a direct line to […]

The Stairs and the Pick-Up

After sweating through my red Hawaiian dress, walking the Palatine and the Forum, listening to The Great Nerd, Mr. Rick Steves, podcast into my ear, the dark coolness of these open doors called to me. I should not really have gone in. I had to pee in a very serious way. As I approached the doorway, […]