The casting call came nearly one year ago (November 20, 2008 to be exact).  I fell quickly and hard for the siren’s lure and crashed upon the rocks that taunted me with the promise of lights and a built-in audience.  There was no audition process; I simply accepted the terms of/… Read full post »

aim was smart enough to direct me to this post.  This could be you.  See life from a completely different perspective.  Go here now.  Is this the life you signed up for?  I think not.

UPDATE:  I implore everyone who reads and is moved by this post to forward it to… Read full post »

Sometimes life gets in the way.  One minute you’re minding your own business (if you haven’t yet, please consider the idea of giving up minding anyone or everyone else’s business but your own – it’s rather intrusive and a big fucking waste of time.).  The next/… Read full post »

Can we please correct the cover?  This is the second time in less than one month this has happened..... Read full post »

I was here. 

And here. 

And there, too.

I have had a great run.  My life is a marathon of unforgiving joy, elusive hope, tangled roots, scream at the top of my lungs silence and words that have not yet been invented for which you have no ears. Sometimes,/… Read full post »

In the mirror I see two women: the one who I had once been and of whom I am now letting go; the other, a woman I have long forgotten, nearly lost, am becoming.  I recognize neither.  And here I am letting you see them both as they simultaneously disappear and… Read full post »

I wonder if it might have been better to see Cairo by day for the first time in the early hours of the morning (meaning before 10:00 am) so I could have slowly eased into the reality I was about to encounter, instead of being thrust into the eye of a… Read full post »

I had never seen or eaten an enormous shrimp (gamberi) complete with head and guts until that first dinner in Cairo.  Grilled (okay, almost charred) to death, I felt like I was being served large insects instead of crustaceans.  This was not your squeaky clean party shrimp with cocktail sau/… Read full post »

When the general arrived shortly before 6 pm with a big smile on his face and sweat pouring down his robust cheeks, I didn’t know whether to hug this big grinning corpus of a man or scream.  I was relieved to see the first familiar face of the day and to/… Read full post »

Out of the darkness, our convoy of limos eventually merged on to a major thoroughfare that was obviously capable of handling more traffic than we were dealing with in the middle of that balmy May night.  In retrospect, I was lucky that my initial glimpses of Cairo took place while most/… Read full post »

I remember feeling like I was “getting away with something” by deciding to leave Budapest by getting on a plane going to Egypt.  I packed as much as I could into a single suitcase and officially placed my trust in the hands of complete strangers who were about to take me… Read full post »

My lifelong best friend whom I had known since I was five years old had gotten married and moved to France several months prior to my arrival in Budapest. Things were not going as well as she had hoped; her husband was moody, the economy in their small village sucked and… Read full post »

Budapest is a modern city modeled much after Paris with its impressive architecture, cosmopolitan feeling, smart public transport and grid layout.  But it is actually two cities divided by the Danube River.  Nestled in the hills, the Buda side is greener, quieter and privately residential.&… Read full post »

“Here.” 

Almost every meandering monologue my father puts you through begins with this simple word, as if it is a disclaimer of sorts for the nonlinear thought process you are going to have follow verbally, multiplied by the number of minutes you will be his audience for whatever st… Read full post »

I just read a post that absolutely stunned me.  I pray that the words I just read are not true, but unfortunately I know that they are.  They were written by my first cousin.

 PLEASE GO READ THIS NOW. Read full post »

My father is two people:  BH: (Before the Holocaust) and AH:  (After the Holocaust). BH has been a mystery to us for most of our lives.  We know he was an only child and that his grandfather was an orthodox rabbi.  They lived in a very small village in Hungary.  His love/… Read full post »

There was a wonderful scene in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" where Marisa Tomei’s character learns that her fiancé Vinny is about to go hunting with the corrupt judge to earn some brownie points.   He asks her what pants he should wear to go hunting. Horrified by it all,… Read full post »

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend.  I have been on a truth-purging roll lately.  I’m not going to give you links (people rarely bother to click on them) to any of those recent posts.  You don’t need GPS to find them and I won't put a gun to your head/… Read full post »

There were the stolen glances, rolling of the eyes and tapping of fingers against my knees as my mother and I listened again and again to the same menu of what my “book” was going to be about and how I was going to write it.  The three-week crash course itinerary/… Read full post »

Imagine being put in a corner with navy beans on the floor and being forced to rest your palms and knees upon them as if you were sitting like a dog as a form of punishment if you did something wrong.

Imagine being told, “You’re talking stupid, you know?” when… Read full post »

I don’t have to tell any of you that life is difficult.  Sometimes, it is more difficult than others.  The past six weeks have been extremely trying on me both emotionally and mentally; the past two years have been harder than I might have anticipated or imagined.  This decade in/… Read full post »

Dear Writing God:

I don’t know if I ever mentioned this to You this but when I was a little girl I wanted to become a writer.  I suppose I should rephrase that.  From as far back as I can remember, I always thought of myself as a writer.  A/… Read full post »

You are absolutely right (in your own mind). And nobody is going to change that.  If you haven’t noticed, a lot of people (including me) stopped trying a long time ago.  That’s our right, too.

I’ll believe it when I see it. … Read full post »

I am often asked what inspires me to paint a particular painting or write a particular post, lyric or piece of work.  My mind is constantly engaged and moves like a meteor shower.  I never "decide" I am going to write or paint a certain piece or how it will take… Read full post »

I basically stopped watching TV altogether right after the election.  I get my news from the Internet (I'm a ravenous reader and hop all over the tubes to get my "news" from various sources from several countries).  But lately, even the news on the Internet has started to get a little… Read full post »