Home » Things I have learned so far (Page 31)
So I said to myself, “What better time that New Year’s Day to begin a writing challenge?”
Forget the details, like the fact that I didn’t actually start writing this until after midnight on January 2. As far as I’m concerned, until I go to sleep, the calendar doesn’t turn over. (An exception exists when I work all night, but I didn’t do that with this post. Instead, I reached a stopping point and went to sleep, and now I’m back again on the “second” day of the month.) Continue reading
After last night’s debacle, I found myself curious about how a solo female diner might be received elsewhere. It was time, I thought, to experiment.
Half a block from my hotel are a pair of sibling restaurants, Max Fish and Max Amore. A mere quarter-mile from the now-infamous Bertucci’s, they sit comfortably at the other end of many scales, including quality (higher), price (ditto), and service (ditto ditto). Continue reading
For years, Bertucci’s was one of my go-to places. Among its attributes: good food, reasonable prices, and an environment where a person who didn’t feel like getting takeout could dine alone and feel comfortable.
So much for #1 and 3.
November 22, 5:22 p.m. I have already changed into flannel pajamas and slippers, thus proclaiming that I have no intention of leaving my hotel room tonight. I sip chardonnay from a drinking glass, munch baked potato chips, and luxuriate in the twin blessings of silence and indolence.
In 2000, I went on vacation alone for the first time. The prospect of a week on Captiva Island, reading and swimming and reading again, was delicious. Of course, the dilemma was what to read: mysteries, literature, general fiction, essays, or something else. Who knew what I’d feel like reading on a given day? So I did what any reasonable person would do: I loaded up my suitcase with books and tucked some clothes in around them. At the Fort Myers airport, as I tried to lift my suitcase into a rental car, I found myself wishing there was an alternative to hauling a library around.
(Photo credit: bellablissclothing.wordpress.com)
Remember Eloise, the little girl who lived at The Plaza in New York? Granted, Eloise was a six-year-old who lived in the penthouse at a luxury hotel, not a temporarily-displaced writer with five cats who is trying to juggle a day job, regular day-to-day minutiae, and all the calls and texts and emails and errands that accompany crisis management. Still, I can’t help thinking that her experience is ever so slightly different from mine. Continue reading
Two weeks and four days since the fire. Another four to six weeks until I move home (a fact I learned on Friday, when I thought I was on the cusp of returning).
When you’re not in your own home, your own workplace, your own world, one of the first things you discover is that everything takes five times as long to accomplish. At home, rituals and shortcuts and routines that can be executed without thought. Away from home, there are all sorts of steps: Continue reading
As the old saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.
Two weeks ago, I posted with great satisfaction about my 100-day challenge and how I’d established all sorts of routines to make it work. At that time, I felt confident I could see this through.
Yesterday, I fell off the wagon, so to speak. Continue reading
P. Jo Anne Burgh 