Time Warp

In reading all the heartfelt and funny-in-a-stressed-out-way blogs of Mamas raising young children and teenagers, I find myself reminiscing of times gone by when I, too, shared many of the same everyday experiences.

Thinking of how I stretched my patience to the max trying to appease my young children’s wishes for entertaining their many friends, taking on new extracurricular classes and being at their beck and call day and night, leaves me to wonder where that never-ending patience is now. Continue… »

The Blind Date

I met my husband of 30 years on a blind date. David was 24 and a bartender at a chic Sausalito discotheque. I was 21.

As the night wore on, David repeatedly offered me tequila-laden margaritas. By closing time, I was in his arms and agreeing to join him at his swanky apartment in Sausalito for a game of cards.

The next morning, I woke to get dressed and kiss him goodbye. As I grabbed my purse to leave, he asked for my phone number and promised to call soon. Sure enough, he did. After a first date of pizza and a movie, we saw each other with more frequency. Before I knew it, our whirlwind romance had turned into a year-long engagement.

Continue… »

Vacationing with Adult Children; Relishing Time Together

I am poised on the edge of my seat as I prepare for our family vacation at Stinson Beach.

About five years ago this same vacation destination took place with myself, my darling husband, David, my lovely daughter, Alicia, and my handsome son, Dante: each of us thriving and enjoying one another’s company.

At the time, my daughter, then twenty-one, had just returned from a trip to Australia and she spent many beach hours compiling a beautiful photo album. My son was sixteen and his time was taken up daily with many of his Bolinas girlfriends visiting him in casual beach attire.

Trying to bring back the laid-back, relaxed atmosphere we attained then somehow has a different edge at this stage in our lives.

Now attempting to rekindle that tranquil beach vibe feels like a challenge to our full, adult lives and calendars. Continue… »

You Gotta Keep Moving, Moving, Moving. . .

Turns out that writing for The Writing Mamas head honcho Dawn is not so foreboding after all.

Here I was thinking my penned thoughts on her group would be dismissed as pure drivel, but instead she gave me heads up super positive feedback. This only encourages me to write more, which is what I am in her group to do.

So why not begin with real life Mama drama? Continue… »

Oh, Mamas Why You Mean So Much to Me

On the verge again it seems of allowing myself the freedom to use a new outlet for my creative writing.

The mood here at the Writing Mamas Salon is different than I have experienced in my past writing classes at College of Marin and the one introductory course at Book Passage by Leslie Keenan where I began my search for a glimmer of hope that my poetry could find a life outside of my own home and the “Bolinas Hearsay Newspaper.” Continue… »