After 32 years of marriage, you’d think you know someone. Then one day, out of the blue, he says he wants an RV. “Why on Earth would we want an RV?” I asked. “We have a tent.” The problem with the tent, he pointed out, is that it doesn’t have a toilet. With our own [...]
March 14, 1971 – Hey Mother, what’d I do to deserve a period? I’m 13 years old, for Pete’s sake. Couldn’t you hold off for at least 10 years? July 8 1972 – OK, so you’re not budging on the period. Then how about a pair of boobs? This is bikini season. June 28, 1977 [...]
Acquiring a spare tire on vacation is the least a gal can do for friends stuck at home. And I would, if I could. But when I travel with Bob, I always lose weight. Traveling like we do, anyone else would, too. Allow me to make amends for my next getaway by revealing how you, [...]
Before I ever went camping, I assumed that to see animals up close in the wild, you had to spend days on end in the middle of nowhere, disguised as a bush. It hadn’t occurred to me that animals have no interest in making nice with a bush; they want to make nice with humans, [...]
Original Cyn running with the bulls. Everybody wants to be a runner as long as they don’t have to run. Well, wannabes, you’re in luck. There’s never been a better time for you. It took them almost 2,800 years, but race organizers finally realized runners don’t actually want to run. Early runners just [...]
Once upon a time, there were three college students who met and became close friends their freshmen year. Their names were Carrie, Shirley and Flo. A year after graduating, they reunited and fell into reminiscing about the spring semester of 2020, when the coronavirus was ravaging the country.. “That semester was the best,” Carrie said. [...]
When record temperatures scorched Western Europe last summer, husband Bob and I bundled up in windbreakers and sweatshirts in a cool, coastal sliver of the continent. If the heat wave caught us, we would have headed to the mountains or a cooler coast. That was the beauty of traveling in a rented camper van [...]
Cynthia and Bob working away at host homes in France and Spain. Older Volunteers Welcome in European Homes When I was a student in London for a semester, I told an older, wiser woman that I dreamed of a life with enough money to travel. I didn’t mean 10-day tours of Rome, Paris [...]
You’d think I’ve lived on this planet long enough to know a thing or two about human behavior. Apparently, I don’t. I’m more baffled than ever by so many things I see people do. Last night, for instance, I saw a pregnant woman spend a good two minutes talking on the news, all the while [...]
Every year around this time, snowbirds charmed by high-rise condos and traffic reminiscent of mid-town Manhattan think about making South Florida their year-round home. As a permanent resident, I’d recommend they spend a summer here first. Not because of the heat. Everybody knows Florida summers make steam rooms feel downright refreshing. And not because of [...]