BETWEEN BUSINESS CARDS - A help-yourself-while-I-stumble-through blog

The All-American

It was a cold, blustery January morning. Icicles draped the parking porte-cochère like holiday lights, frozen mid-melt. A rare recent southern winter storm left lacy ice patches on the dormant…

Crying Time

I wasn’t expecting to learn anything by sitting in a doctor’s waiting room. “It’s such a relief they got all the melanoma,” my friend had said to me after I…

Hometown Hero

Detroit did not come to my mind as a bucket list destination. But it was the perfect starting point for our next trip. My husband Richard was born in the…

Bound to Look Good

My daughter Kristen and I recently went shopping for undergarments. As we walked into Macy’s, I asked the young woman at the perfume counter, “Where do you keep your intimates?”…

Burning Down the House: A Lesson in Generosity and Persistence

In the 1920s, my father’s parents sharecropped land they rented from wealthy landowners in Delaware. My grandmother worked as the cook in the main houses. She was short and strong.…

Finding Christmas

We weren’t prepared for missing Christmas. It was an unseasonably mild December. A wintry mix of sleet and rain started early Christmas Eve morning, turning our yard into ice-crusted soggy…

Waiting for Light

Christmas is coming! On our childhood farm, not unlike hunting season’s opening day, my mother declared the beginning of the Christmas season. It launched with housework. Nestled among over a…

Pretty Girl

I met Ashley after she moved into her new digs in Brooklyn. Our daughter, Claire, lives in the same multi-story building — three floors up a marble and wrought iron…

Palm Reader

“Give me your hand. Let me see what is in your future.” My mother was a devout Catholic. Ironically, she also loved to read palms — mystical future telling carried…

Dazed and Confused

One of the joys of living at the beach is bearing witness to the permanence of the ocean. Its continual reaching towards the shore. Its mood changes from serene to…

Holy Dirt

“Be careful with the words you release from your tongue. They cannot be put back.” My mouth burning from a habanero-laced pistachio, I nodded politely but didn’t really listen. The…

Tears and Tiaras

I didn’t realize that taking my high school guidance counselor’s advice would lead to one of my biggest embarrassments. In the fall of senior year, he suggested I broaden participation…

Bound to Look Good

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My daughter Kristen and I recently went shopping for undergarments. As we walked into Macy’s, I asked the young woman at the perfume counter, “Where do you keep your intimates?” She froze and her eyes widened. “Intimates?” I asked again, thinking she didn’t hear me. “Uh, I’m not sure,” she said, knitting her brows. Kristen shook in silent laughter. As I glanced at the sales attendant, realization dawned. “Oh!” I said, my face burning. “You thought I meant, like, intimates …” I trailed off. That was worse. “I mean intimate apparel. Bras. Panties,” I continued haltingly. The associate’s shoulders relaxed as we all burst out laughing at my misinterpreted question.…

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