The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Almost every Sunday, I sit in the 4th pew from the altar at the 1:15 Spanish mass. It's not an ideal spot, since the vent for the air conditioner is perched directly above us, leaving us stunted with cold, and shafts of sunlight pierce the slanted windowpanes at a cruel angle. But that's where my mother insists that we sit. She wants to get a good seat, like it's a production of Hamilton.

The Reckless Ones

I’d never seen water quite that shade of clear-sky blue, and I’d never seen men quite as shifty as the two that stood in front of us on the beach in Negril, Jamaica. One man wore a UC Berkeley t-shirt and the other wore a faded fedora.

Temporary Roommates

The most concerning moment came when we thought the car had been stolen.

The children were home from college for winter break. Of course, we were happy to see them, needless to say. It’s just that they are no longer children, and I started noticing some, well, irregularities in our otherwise carefully ordered lives.

Life 101

Recently, I went to mass at the Newman Center, here in Sacramento, and afterward, when I would normally walk to my car, I found myself walking across the street onto the grounds of Sacramento State University.

As I wandered past the same trees that had grown in the same spots when I was 20 years old, I stopped to consider them with my almost 50-year-old eyes.

Wall Colors

Recently, my mother-in-law came for a visit. Both of my kids are away at college and don’t live at home, and yet I did not have a “guest room” to offer my guest.

The Gelato Diet

It was a typical day.

Or so I thought.

Wandering the aisles of the grocery store, I glanced dispiritedly at the contents of my cart: cat food for the stray, milk, bananas, cold cuts.

Then I remembered that my parents had half committed to coming over for dinner and I considered buying a pint of ice cream so my father would have something he liked for dessert.

The Dreadful Perry Mason

Peri-menopause has not been kind to me. Being in my late 40s (not an appealing word—“late”), this harrowing and unpleasant condition has dogged me for years. Far longer, according to my bemused and yet overly earnest doctor, than is typical.

What a thing to say to a woman who has suffered enough.