After the sun slides behind the ash trees in my backyard, my heart thumps with anticipation. It’s finally time for GETTING THINGS DONE. . . . → Read More: Getting Things Done
|
|||
|
Each of my girls could keep some of me in a gorgeous mosaic urn, personalized with photos under glass beads, like the ones my friend Sybil Sage makes for ashes of your cat or your mother. . . . → Read More: Susan’s Ashes May 11th, 2012  Leave a comment  FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RELIGION  burial, cemeteries, cremation, death, family cemetery plots, funerals, Jews and cremation, WORRY, worrywart I am not part of the walk-and-text culture. I’m barely part of the text culture. But as a writer, who lives alone, my laptop has become one of my best friends. . . . → Read More: Connecting With Friends May 2nd, 2012 4 comments BIKING, BLOGGING, DIVORCE, HOME angst, cell phones, conversation, friends, keeping in touch, living alone, phoning, staying connected, stress, texting, working alone, WORRY, worrywart, writing When your daughter is in Colombia and hasn’t tweeted all day, is it every mother’s tweetmare that her kid is locked in the trunk of a sedan? . . . → Read More: Pitchapalooza! My girlfriend Bev and I formed our own two-member fan club for James Vincent Peatross, a Bandstand regular and frequent dance contest winner. . . . → Read More: Dick Clark and American Bandstand Memories April 18th, 2012 4 comments HOME, RUMINATIONS, WISHES 1950's, 1960's, American Bandstand, crushes, dancing, Dick Clark, fame, heartthrobs, rock and roll, teenagers, television, WORRY, worrywart With the kerfuffle about Ann Romney having been a stay-at-home mom, I thought I would put in my two cents about stay-at-home moms. . . . → Read More: Stay-at-Home Mom Kerfuffle April 13th, 2012 17 comments BLOGGING, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, MR. RIGHT/WRONG being interesting, boyfriends, caregivers, marriage, mothers, parenting, raising a family, stay at home moms, what people think, working at home, WORRY, worrywart, writers Easter Egg Roll 2012 observations: Most children seemed to be having a swell time, the parents were the happiest people there, and President Obama’s khakis were a perfect fit. . . . → Read More: Easter Egg Roll 2012 April 9th, 2012 Leave a comment BLOGGING, FAMILY Easter Egg Roll, families, kids, parents, POTUS, the Obamas, White House, WORRY, worrywart The To Do List Dear Susan, I should be working now but instead I’m writing to you. You see, I’m a procrastinator. Please help me stop putting things off! Signed, Puttingthingsoff in Peoria Dear PiP, I’m so glad you asked. I am great at procrastination. Here is one thing I do to procrastinate: I . . . → Read More: Dear Susan: I’m a Procrastinator April 6th, 2012 4 comments BLOGGING, HOME, TIPS addiction, ANXIETY, cognitive therapy, efficiency, organizing, procrastination, putting things off, quotes, stress, TIPS, Twitter, work, WORRY, worrywart Ever since reading about Dutch Airline KLM’s new program that allows passengers to choose seatmates, using Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, I’ve been contemplating who my ideal seat mate should be. For a worrywart this whole idea is a great thing. . . . → Read More: My Ideal Seatmate I was happy that my mind was still logical enough . . . → Read More: Worrywart Logic March 16th, 2012 Leave a comment FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RELIGION, RUMINATIONS aging, angst, logic, natural disasters, safe travel, stress, WORRY, worrywart Early in our relationship, on warm Friday evenings, my boyfriend Steve (who later became my husband) and I frequently squished onto a Long Island Railroad car to spend summer weekends with his parents. On one such trip a muffled siren began to blare. I turned to Steve and shouted, “Sounds like someone’s portable smoke alarm . . . → Read More: BYO March 7th, 2012 5 comments DIVORCE, FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, MR. RIGHT/WRONG portable smoke detector, Relationships, smoke alarm, travel precautions, WORRY, worrywart I’ll give you a moment to digest what it is like for a worrywart to write a book. Try to imagine all there is to worry about. . . . → Read More: Writing-a-Book Worries Recently I wrote a piece called Easy Meditation, in which I shared a method I heard about on NPR. On that NPR segment, the author talked about allowing thoughts to pass through your mind like clouds. . . . → Read More: TIPS DAY: MOMENT OF WORRY February 22nd, 2012 2 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, RUMINATIONS, TIPS, WIRED TO WORRY ANXIETY, Gretchen Rubin, happiness, moment of worry, self-promotion, stress, WORRY, worry tips, worrywart My starter husband Saul and I began dating the week before I entered college; we married after my sophomore year and divorced during my junior year. I emerged from the husband, the garden apartment and the Impala sedan squinting from the sudden brightness of university life. At age twenty, for the first time ever, I . . . → Read More: DIZZY: LIVING WITH MY BOYFRIEND, CIRCA 1967 February 14th, 2012 4 comments DIVORCE, MR. RIGHT/WRONG, STARTER MARRIAGE ANXIETY, boyfriends, breaking up, cohabiting, college boyfriend, living together, nicknames, STARTER MARRIAGE, stress, virginity, WORRY, worrywart I have a record of attraction to worn things. Before Kindle, back when I read paperback books, they appealed to me far more after I roughed them up with: dog-ears, notes in the margins and swollen pages from the times I read them in my hot tub. . . . → Read More: OF NEWNESS AND PATINA February 9th, 2012 4 comments HOME, RUMINATIONS, TIPS aging, books, cosmetic surgery, dog ears, Kindle, laundering, newness, patina, Relationships, WORRY, worrywart, writing in books Casey is healthy, spunky and—at 13 1/2—still learning new tricks, like wagging his tail. Yet today I awoke vocalizing a name for my next dog. . . . → Read More: A BOY CALLED SCARLET? February 2nd, 2012 9 comments BIKING, CASEY, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS choosing a dog's gender, couples who have separate lives, dog names, dogs, fave, imaginative dog names, marriage, names, nicknames, passion, pets, psychotherapy, Relationships, sleeping with my dog, WORRY, worrywart It’s a common occurrence in New York and other cities. You put your key in the lock of your apartment building and someone is about to follow you inside. What do you do? Usually in the interest of security I ask if the person lives there and then request they use their own key . . . → Read More: WRITER + ENCOUNTER WITH STRANGER = STORY My New Year’s resolution is to learn how to play Angry Birds.
But an essay in the New York Times suggests that daydreaming increases creativity. Daydreaming requires time, time I dump into playing Words With Friends.
Words With Friends, though, is more than just words. It’s confirmation that my sister, . . . → Read More: WORDS WITH FRIENDS Marathon women a decade hence On an ordinary afternoon in 1998, Eliza, my sixteen-year-old daughter, plopped her backpack at my feet, waved a brochure so close it grazed my nose and declared, “I’m signing up for the Marine Corps Marathon. I’ll be running with a group that raises money for AIDS and trains Sunday . . . → Read More: MARATHON WOMEN When I, always the initiator, smile at a stranger and the stranger smiles back, it puts a musical note in my step. Or in my pedal, as was the case on Christmas Eve day. I was on a long bike ride from New Jersey to Staten Island and, when a driver stopped to allow me to . . . → Read More: SMILING STRANGERS January 6th, 2012 2 comments BIKING, BLOGGING, CASEY, DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, TIPS catching a stranger's eye, friendliness, smiling, smiling strangers, strangers, WORRY, worrywart In my post My Year of Blogging, I noted that writing personal essays involves catching yourself in the act of thinking and then exposing and exploring it on the page. Here’s something I do every single day, and it was not until this morning that I caught it in my consciousness as something to write . . . → Read More: CATCHING MYSELF IN A DAILY THOUGHT: WHICH UNDERWEAR TO WEAR December 31st, 2011 6 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, FAMILY, HOME, RUMINATIONS choosing what to wear, clothes, I hate shopping, looks, panties, shopping, undergarments, underpants, undies, wardrobe, WORRY, worrywart, writing tips ‘Tis the season to obsess . . . about gifts. For someone like me, who gets overwhelmed by choices, and–even when the options are narrowed to two–can’t decide, this can be a hard time of year. So I resort to creative gift-giving, like ice cream sodas for the third night of Hanukkah. Making placemats for . . . → Read More: ANXIETY ABOUT GIFTS: GIVING & GETTING December 23rd, 2011 4 comments DIVORCE, FAMILY, HOME, TIPS bad gifts, Christmas, family presents, foot scrubber, gift shopping, gifts, giving, great gifts, Hanukkah, presents, re-gifting, WORRY, worrywart One day, after hours of sliding my cursor from Twitter to Facebook to Stats for my blogs and back to Twitter, when I should have been writing, I emailed Dr. M, a cognitive therapist. Dr. M had previously helped me understand that worry is an addiction; it hits the same pleasure center of the brain that . . . → Read More: Twitter Addiction: Advice From a Cognitive Therapist At heart, I’m as much a salesperson as a writer. In 1978, I was recognized by Merrill Lynch for ranking second in opening new accounts among their first-year stockbrokers. During my next career, back in the days of print, selling my essays was harder. Some of my articles received a dozen or more rejections before getting . . . → Read More: IT’S 3 A.M. & THERE’S AN EMAIL: TALE OF A BLOGGING LIFE December 8th, 2011 One comment BLOGGING blog readers, blog stats, BLOGGING, email, email blasts, facebook, hurtful email, publishing, selling, stockbroker, Twitter, WORRY, worrywart, writing, writing group I needed an antidote to worry this weekend, when my bike got a flat tire and then my car wouldn’t start. So here is the latest in my Antidote to Worry Series of food photos and such. Here’s how I compose this satisfying crunchy salad: A base of arugula Trader Joe’s Healthy 8 chopped veggie . . . → Read More: ANTIDOTE TO WORRY: CRUNCHY SALAD December 5th, 2011 Leave a comment BIKING, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, TIPS antidote to worry, crunchy salad, orange muscat champagne vinegar, Trader Joe's, WORRY, worrywart Note to those of my peeps to whom Twitterspeak is as foreign as Uz-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan-ese: You may not want to slog through this one. If you do, RT means retweet. I spend a lot of time on Twitter sharing links to articles I write. I have cultivated a variety of followers. Yet, how do I hold . . . → Read More: 10 TWITTER QUESTIONS & 1 TWITTER TALE November 30th, 2011 One comment BLOGGING, FAMILY, travel making lemonade out of lemons, meeting on twitter, tweeting, Twitter, twitter questions, twitter spam, twitter stories, twittiquette, WORRY, worrywart Is it a worrywart trait to seek pleasure on the highest plane? To always be wondering whether–no matter how good something is–it could be better? That’s how it is with me and eating. It’s a similar quest with family time. When I hear about a family who acts out Shakespeare together or who is always . . . → Read More: IN SEARCH OF THE ART OF EATING, TECHNIQUE-WISE November 22nd, 2011 3 comments FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, TIPS Adam Gopnik, eating, eating a pomegranate, eating chocolate, eating technique, eating while standing, family time, fave, mindful eating, MRI, pleasure, poison food for dogs, savoring food, taste buds, tasting, the art of eating, wine tasting, WORRY, worrywart If our family were contestants on a TV know-your-family game show, and the emcee were to ask, “Who is least likely to be a pest?” we would all shout “Emy!” The rest of us can be annoying, not least of all yours truly, but never Emy. 3 a-door-bell kids When my three daughters were little, . . . → Read More: IN SEARCH OF JOLLY GEORGE: OUR FAMILY GLOSSARY November 17th, 2011 5 comments CASEY, FAMILY, HOME Chinglish, FAMILY, family glossary, family jargon, family names, funny family words for things, labeling kids, nick names, WORRY, worrywart While shops experience brisker business on weekends, blog traffic slows, at least mine does. So I’m posting this shortie today, hoping for weekend visitors. What I’m about to write is one of those things I wouldn’t give a second thought to, were I not examining myself all the time for the very gaggle of . . . → Read More: HOARDING WATER LIKE CHICKEN SOUP November 12th, 2011 4 comments BLOGGING, CASEY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME BLOGGING, filtered water, observing oneself, obsessively checking things, quirks, quirky behavior, saving filtered water, water filters, WORRY, worrywart 1955 After a swallow of dinner, I dirty my face with burnt cork and, on my shoulder, rest a broomstick with a bundle of rags tied to its end. I then prepare for the battle with my mom over not wearing a coat. I step into the hallowed night, wondering which house has the apples . . . → Read More: HALLOWEEN HARDSHIPS November 8th, 2011 4 comments DIVORCE, FAMILY, HEALTH AND SAFETY, HOME, MR. RIGHT/WRONG apples with razor blades, beijing, China 1979, Cultural Revolution, feeling awkward in Halloween costume, Halloween, Halloween candy, Halloween costumes, Halloween crime, haunted houses, kids and Halloween candy, not being home on Halloween, WORRY, worrywart |
    |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 CONFESSIONS OF A WORRYWART - All Rights Reserved |
|||
RECENT COMMENTS