When I worked in news I’d tell aspiring journalists that the one thing guaranteed to get them a job in news is knowing how to find, order, buy and deliver food, anywhere, anytime. Students always laughed, but I was never really kidding. Need to feed cameramen stuck on a roof in Havana shooting live shots…
Every January I, and most of the rest of the self-flagellating crowd I know, lament too loud and too much that we ate too much over the holidays so we must cut back and deprive ourselves of all goodnesses in January to restart our diets and, therefore, our lives. As I’ve gotten older this desire…
Read more January-Approved Comfort Food: Eggplant Parmesan Boats
The scene is Christmas 2013. There are 13 adults seated around a too-small table in a too-loud striving Italian restaurant in Georgetown. One couple is divorced. Two siblings don’t speak directly to each other, just through the semi-newcomer who unwittingly sat between them. The grandparents are beloved, but their political views are not – and…
The holidays are over, and they were lovely. My one regret? I didn’t write a single thing down during them. I think the only thing I wrote, literally, was a Turks and Caicos Customs Entry form and a check. Now I find myself with a holiday hangover, literally and figuratively. My pants feel tight. My…
Read more The Thing I Should Have Packed for Vacation: My Writing Habit
Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, if you can pull your eyes away from the ocean, you might spy rickety looking train tracks. I’ve never given them much thought, assuming they’re just holdovers from a train-heavy past. I’d never actually seen a train on them, perhaps because I’m usually staring fixedly at the ocean –…
Read more The Pacific Surfliner – A Not-so-hidden Gem along SoCal’s Coast
Someone recently asked me what I was afraid of about starting a family. What am I afraid of? The better question is, “What am I not afraid of?” I am afraid of literally everything when I think about starting a family. There are lists of classes of concerns. The fears could be organized by family…
Read more Children – The Only Thing I Have to Fear is Literally Everything
There are five grownups living in Gwendom right now. Four of them own cars. All of them drink milk daily – two in their coffee, one with oatmeal, two with cold cereal. We have not had milk for 10 days. It is the Milk War of Attrition. Who will break first? I’ve bought milk twice…
After Thanksgiving we hit the road for an escape from Washington. We did not, though, escape overeating. Pittsburgh has a burgeoning food scene, and we did our best to hit some of the high points. Thankfully, though, we weren’t assaulted by leftover turkey until returning to Gwendom. Just a short drive from D.C., Pittsburgh is…
Read more Pittsburgh – Positively Pleasant Just Four Hours from Washington
I woke up this Thanksgiving in a bed not my own, with my Matt and my dog sprawled out like sailors after a hard nights leave. We’re staying in my best friend’s mother’s home, and I am so grateful to her and to him and the village we’ve created that has enabled this year’s mantra:…
The food scene in Gwendom can be very grim. Positive Alicia would tell you it’s back to the basics, taste of your childhood-style comfort food. Real me says it’s grim. Today, Gwen’s Sloppy Joe’s made me cry. There is no truly good Sloppy Joe. But there are Sloppy Joes that taste good, namely, the one…
