I have committed myself to learning Spanish. I do this once about every six months or so. But this time, my pledge is for real. And like so many people making a similar promise to attain linguistic Nirvana, I am resourcing Rosetta Stone. The set of instructional CDs was a gift from my husband two [...]
It goes something like this. A little girl is standing on line in a deli with her father. The father is holding the little girl’s little hand in his hand protectively. The little girl is staring at a big police officer who is standing in the line opposite them. The big police officer [...]
INTRODUCTION by Alison Grambs “Hi, Alison. My name is Jody Romano, and I’m calling from the Alumni office at Haverford College…” Uh-oh… the Alumni office? Panicked, I paused the playback feature on my voicemail, mentally preparing myself for what was clearly about to happen. My esteemed alma mater had decided to rescind my graduation [...]
Ah, the Spring. The time of year when people become all too aware of the extra few pounds their bodies acquired during the winter and, in an effort to shed those extra pounds as fast as possible, suddenly take up jogging. Sometimes their efforts are victorious. (Yay for them.) But sometimes such quests to slim [...]
I had a weird dream. I was walking alone down a dimly lit, completely deserted Manhattan street. It was real quiet. Except for the patter of a light rain falling at my feet, the usual cacophony of city noises was conspicuously absent from the atmosphere. Likewise, my stride, usually confident and aggressive, was uncharacteristically tentative [...]
“That’s IT!” I yelped at my husband the other night after I stepped out of our apartment building to discover yet another batch of scaffolding has been erected in our already blighted neighborhood. ”We’re moving out of the city!” These are words I shout about once a week these days, as the city in which I [...]
Okay. Here goes. Time to write this novel. Easier to just talk about being a novelist, of course, but people are beginning to ask questions. Looks like I actually have to write the novel. Feeling good! Feeling intellectual! Feeling inspired! Have the apartment to myself. Husband is asleep. Dog is asleep. Yep. Time to get some serious [...]
Last night I was doing some Spring cleaning. In “Alison Speak” this means moving old furniture around to trick myself into thinking we’ve gotten new furniture. (Try it. It actually works- for about three days. By the fourth, you realize you’re just living an interior decorating lie.) Being the night owl I am, I’d chosen [...]
Note: Below is one of the first pieces I posted on this blog when I introduced it about six months ago. The theme seemed to strike a cord with the handful of kindly readers I had back then. And now that my readers have expanded by a few, I thought I’d repost this. It’s St. [...]
About twice a year I embark on what I refer to as my ‘writing retreat’. I escape from the noise and chaos of the city to lock myself away in a far away place for a few days to focus solely on my literary endeavors. Usually, such trips coincide with a new idea I [...]
A few weeks ago, I was walking out of a restaurant, pushing my way through one of those elaborate glass doors that weighs more than the average car. A man was coming out behind me, and as I stepped out, I made sure to hold the door for him as I always do in such [...]
