Patients and their loved ones need to be their own best advocates for medical care. Here, I share our recent experience during my husband’s heart attack. Spoiler alert: A formal complaint against a doctor has been filed.
Adjusting to our new normal as parents of a Marine
Breaking my silence
NOTE: About six years ago I started this blog, and for the first year I loved writing it – it was cathartic and it helped me connect with others in a unique way. But sometimes life is tricky. Sometimes we stop doing what is right for us because … well there can be a lot […]
Homeward bound
Time flies when you’re making excuses
Laughter really is the best medicine
This is my 45 …
This blog post about turning 45 has been all over social media since Wednesday. It’s one that many women can relate to – all being in the same or similar boats as the writer. That’s one of the great things about writing – having people truly connect with your words. It was beautifully written and I […]
An open letter to 2013: Good riddance
Grumpy Grinch’s nasty-gram can’t ruin Christmas spirit
We all have years that our Christmas spirit is a bit low. For me, it’s this year. It’s been a tough year in many ways – difficult situations made harder by bad news, stress and the unexpected loss of a loved one. The lack of Christmas spirit led me to do something I’ve never done before: I bought […]
Mom’s favorite Halloween treat
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter if you’re on the right, left or in the middle
Was it there all along, right in front of us?
The many benefits of mental health days
An everyday hero: His 911 call lead to the recovery of missing teen
Abandoning the pursuit of polish
I’ve been thinking about polish a lot lately. Not shoe polish, nail polish or furniture polish, but personal and professional polish. It means different things to different people – for me, polish isn’t about experience, education, proficiency or professionalism. To me, polish is more about personality, relationship and communication style, appearance and delivery. One isn’t […]
Joining the few, and making us proud
Who won the best ribs contest? This guy
Jimmy with his Best Ribs trophy 2013 — second year in a row. There is something uniquely satisfying about being able to reach people by doing something we love. For me, it’s through writing. It’s one of the best feelings in the world to hear from readers who tell me that something I wrote helped […]
Breaking with tradition on vacation
There’s comfort in consistency (even on, or maybe especially on, vacation)
A sneak peek at what I hope will be my debut novel
I wasn’t sure what to write this week, so I thought since I’ve mentioned working on a novel that I’d grab a few pages and share them. The current revision is still a work in progress, so it’s not ready to share with anyone in its entirety, especially since I’ve been slacking lately. Maybe sharing […]
Next step to lowering stress? Giving up the grudges
I’ve been on a mission to lower my stress, and I’ve been doing pretty well. Giving up guilt and my new approach to exercise (i.e. actually exercising) has helped a lot. So has this blog – simply writing and putting it out there for people to read, relate and respond to is incredibly cathartic; it’s […]
Life can be messy, especially with socks on the floor and sauce on the ceiling
Sunny day, burning with UV rays …
I should have known it would happen. There I was, sitting on my sister’s deck, chatting before going out for lunch the other day, enjoying the beautiful water view, and it happened. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider the possibility. After all, I was wearing a somewhat large, bib-style necklace earlier in […]
Pomp, circumstance, first jobs and first apartments
Don’t let the smile fool you
There is something deeply satisfying about telling someone off. It doesn’t happen often – I’m typically a get-along-to-go-along kind of person. Just as well because I’ve heard from more than one person over the years that they don’t take me seriously when I get mad. Apparently I smile while yelling. I’ve tried to work on […]
The best ‘Day’ of the year isn’t on most calendars
Two years ago, I received the best Mother’s Day gift a woman could imagine – except, it wasn’t on Mother’s Day and I don’t have children. My boyfriend’s then-11-year-old son and I were sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast one Saturday in mid-May, when he said he didn’t think it was right that I […]
Take a deep breath and power through the tough times
It’s hard to write when everything that’s on your mind is off limits. When everything is too new, too raw to share with people outside of your inner circle. When you don’t have all the answers. No matter how many times I’ve tried writing this past week – trying to write about the Boston Marathon […]
Cheers to the ladies who lunch – and make time for friendship
U call that spelling?
When a colleague encouraged me to join Twitter a couple of years ago, I worried I’d become grammatically inept. Worried I’d start using single letters or numbers to convey two- or three-letter words; that I’d forget how to spell correctly, or even worse – that I wouldn’t care. It was enough to make a spelling […]
Under pressure
In January 2011, a few months after my doctor started giving me the evil eye and threatening to put me on blood pressure meds if I didn’t get it under control, my blood pressure spiked: 176/98. Yes, I’m overweight. No, I don’t exercise (though I do pay for the membership). Yes, I should know better […]
A bit about me …
This About Me part has changed a bit. Because I’ve changed a bit. The original About Me post can be found below, posted when I first launched the blog in 2013. I now live in New Hampshire and work in Massachusetts. Rhode Island is a distant, but very sweet memory. I haven’t set foot in […]
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