Category: First course
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Sea Gazing
At low tide on my little beach, the wet sand emanates random popping sounds. A few hours before sunset on my little beach, a golden tone colors everything, and the ocean and rocks sparkle in the backlight. On this afternoon after a busy day at work, the quiet was such that you could hear the…
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RG Interview
Check out a five-question interview with yours truly on Menu Pages South Florida. And now I must go back to digging out all the fleece I thought I would never wear again as I try to stay warm during this taste of winter that is sweeping south all the way to the Keys! Brrr. Even…
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Four Easy Weeks
“Are you a local?” asks a customer who is desperate for me to say yes, because she and her husband and the other couple with whom she is traveling are desperate for a truly local experience at my restaurant. Yes, I am, I tell her. “Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaims. “I told you she had…
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No One Told Me…
…that when you move to the Keys, your auto insurance premiums will go down, but your health insurance premiums will skyrocket. …that you will quickly determine the need for dress flip flops. …that you will quickly determine absolutely no need for any article of dress-up clothing you wore in Fort Lauderdale, and that includes those…
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Homesick
I haven’t missed an inauguration in D.C. since I was…I don’t know, born maybe. In fact, I haven’t missed much in D.C. when Mall crowd numbers are counted. I remember only that I was very young when my stepfather drove my siblings and me downtown and ferried us up to his hotel’s rooftop so that…
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A Mentor’s Words
Annie was my aunt by marriage, a step-aunt in fact, but she and I were often as close as a mother and daughter, although we might go a year without seeing each other. We talked every week, however, sometimes for hours. She died almost four years ago, which seems impossible because it feels like a…
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A View For Healing
It is true, I am a mess. Yes, I am deeply hurt. I am reeling from my move and all I left behind, again. But…if this is the view a few steps away from my very cool new house, how bad can it be? Or, how good can it be? Very. Very, very good.
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Bye Bye 2008
A woman in my luxury apartment complex walks her dog every night at the same time. I know her. She is crazy. Certifiable. Insane. My day-at-a-time boy would tell you I am insane, but I would tell you it is not the same type of insanity. The woman in my complex is very alone. She…
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Boys to Men
A boy texts you everything you hope to hear. A man tells you what he thinks in person. A boy always has an excuse why he can’t see you, which he delivers via text. A man makes plans and keeps them. A boy tells you he is falling deeply for you and wants to live…
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The Princess and the Key to the House
I am a princess. I know this, and I am no longer ashamed to admit this annoying fact about myself. Upset Waitress thought she knew this, too, until she spent two days helping me look at places to live in the Keys. “Oh my God, you really are a princessa, aren’t you? A total, f—ing…