Last week, we went out to celebrate with my oldest and most curmudgeonly friend, Andrew.  Andrew is a tax preparer, so even if I hadn’t been in Mexico for the last three months, I still …

“Carrie!” my husband, Peter, called from the bathroom. We are still in Mexico, and Peter’s abscessed tooth had been extracted earlier that day. The extraction had been difficult. Peter was …

I spent yesterday with more than 5,000 librarians. A few were library aides, and some were library trustees. But the thing they all had in common was libraries.

Three years ago, I was in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, walking through what had once been a large fabric mill. It has since been turned into an art gallery called, appropriately, La Fabrica, where …

Last week, we thought we would leave our little place in Casa de los Soles.  If you’ve read my column, you know about this place my husband, Peter, and I stay in while in Mexico. The …

I had a really good ice cream cone this week. I suppose this does not qualify as news, but I try not to eat too much ice cream, and I don’t usually keep ice cream in my freezer because I have …

I have become the treat lady again. Depending on where I’m walking, I either carry dog treats or I don’t. I used to carry them all the time, but when we moved to the city, I stopped carrying …

Yesterday, I saw a woman trip on the pavement. She immediately turned to her husband and started to complain. I couldn’t hear all she was saying, but I was thinking there was really no point …

I’ve always known I was lucky when it came to family. I saw classmates who had impossible siblings, and I knew my curly-headed younger sister was a catch. I knew people who really hated …

My husband, Peter, and I have landed in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and already the strange seems familiar again. One of the things that impresses me every time I am here is the attention …

They say that some plants “thrive on neglect,” and I never really believed it until now. I have tried for years—decades really—to get things to grow, indoors and out, and I have pretty …

There’s a reason I don’t write about current events. The news flies at me faster than I can absorb. I cannot make sense of it all, and it feels as if I should always be doing something more, …

It takes a long time to write a book. Actually, writing a book does not take that long. Getting a book sold and edited and published takes far more time than I imagined. But my waiting is …

For the most part, I congratulate myself on being relatively competent at managing technology. I don’t have an overwhelming fear of learning new apps or platforms and have even caught myself …

Last summer, Judy approached me one day when I was walking by an old church.  “I see you walking by here every day!” she said.  “Oh, yes. I need to walk!” I told …

“I miss our conversations!” Marilyn wrote to me.  I don’t know Marilyn well, but I like her very much. “You want to get a coffee sometime after Christmas?” I asked.  …

Yesterday I saw a friend, Bridget, whom I had not seen for a full year. “How have you been?” she asked.  “I have learned a lot about myself this year,” I told her. But at the time …

In Sweden, there used to be a widespread belief that animals could talk on Christmas Eve.  My Swedish mother read me stories about this as a child, and it is true. Apparently throughout …

I know there are a lot of opinions about the right way to do Christmas.  My husband, Peter, feels the holidays are too commercial—too much time spent in preparation, too much added stress …

We are heading into the holiday season—already.  This year it seems like I have been running and racing and making it to places in the nick of time all year. I tend to …