Last week on a very busy day--- my husband had customer visits he was handling by himself and I was running from factory to factory doing simultaneous interpreting for our QA Management consultant--- I had run out of carrots.

I’ve been drinking freshly juiced carrot juice, suggested by a doctor… Read full post »

Sometimes I want a baby in a vague way, sort of like an old hockey injury that aches when it rains.  Sometimes I want a baby in a sharp and immediate way, like a knife between the ribs.

I can’t have one myself.  Something is wrong with me, and I also… Read full post »

In the middle of yoga today I was doing the Bound-Ankle Pose and it reminded me of my years of ballet lessons when I was a kid, because the ballet teacher used to ask us to get in the same exact position while watching TV, to improve our “turnout.”  Turnout when… Read full post »

I’ve been thinking about this: why do many women (me included) like romance novels?  Vampire romance novels?  Pirate romance novels?  Regencies?  What is it with this incredibly formulaic genre that sells so well?

I started looking at the formula with a writer’s eye, a… Read full post »

Have you ever had a companion animal that made you believe in reincarnation?  Or hope for the truth of it, at least.  I had a rescue cat that I cleverly called Blackcat to differentiate him from my other cat Whitecat, and he was nearly human.  Whitecat is a good cat, don’t… Read full post »

Yes, this is a rant.  My husband hit me at 06:30 this morning with the latest argument he’d been listening to on CNBC the night before--- that the “irresponsible” homeowners who have gone upside-down or else bought homes with an exotic mortgage that they could not have qualifie… Read full post »

I think I have heard every argument in existence about NOT giving money to beggars.  I have heard arguments in China (“They’re not really poor, they only wear those rags when they’re begging, they work for a beggar king who wears 3-piece suits and carries a cell phone, it&rsquo… Read full post »

My father died of leukemia in 1992.  I was 22.  I had lived overseas for a year by that time, and came back in time to see him before the end.  I’m not sure how I knew that I had to come back right then, but somehow my mother conveyed that… Read full post »

Last night I stepped out onto the street to take a walk before dinner, and encountered my twin nieces (they live next door).  Ming was agitated, shouting and teary-eyed, and Hui was crying hard.  Now, even though I don't have children of my own I have enough experience with three 4-year-old… Read full post »