The Regular Riot

When my husband, Sean, was in eighth grade, his class planned a field trip to New York City. The trip, of course, was a monumental event for kids living near Philadelphia back in the 1980s and would cost $80. His…

Every year on Thanksgiving, usually running late (as we were this year), we drive to Clifton Station to meet up with the family, and head into the city to see the Philadelphia parade. The set-up is one in which the…

There have not been many scenes in my life more poignant than watching my four children and their four cousins, all between the ages of 7 and 18,  say goodbye to their grandfather (my father-in-law) in the back of the…

09 September 2016   

I admit it – I love my birthday. Really, who doesn’t?  Between the cake, the ice cream, the balloons and the good wishes, I never met a birthday I didn’t like. I can’t understand how…

02 July 2016 

We’ve all passed them on the boardwalks, the musty Old Time Photo shops, where customers line up in droves to have portraits taken in gangster, flapper, cowboy or pirate attire, against antiquated backdrops, holding timeworn props…

12 March 2016 

“What did you say?” I ask with a tinge of disgust, “My ears are screaming right now.” 

That’s what I tell my husband and children, when the sounds of tinnitus are unbearably loud, drowning out…

05 March 2016 

It’s happening again. Waking in a panic with confusion and worry. Becoming overly emotional at commercials and cartoons. Desperately trying to savor, if not record, every blessed moment, as a response to the sensation of impending…

05 February 2016 

It’s hard to believe, especially as a child, that your grandparents were ever young. What’s even harder to envision is that they were ever in love, in the whistling-“That’s-Amore”, buying-boxes-of-chocolates sense. Sure, they held hands, to…

30 December 2015 

I am the only chipper morning-person in this house, living with five night owls, which means I am completely out of sync with the rest of my family. Nearly every day, I spring out of bed…

12 November 2009 

The knife, lathered in the peanut butter that I had been rinsing off as I loaded the dishwasher, fell out of my shaking hands and hit the bottom of the kitchen sink. Slowly, I turned and…

03 July 2015 

Exactly seventeen years ago, on a sunny, funny summer day, Sean and I got married. We kick-started this journey with a trip to Moorea, where we got a drumstick stuck in a coconut in an attempt…

15 July 2015 

“Mom, no. Stay in the car. Please don’t go in there.” 

Before heading over to Chik-Fil-A, I made a detour to see if my niece and nephews wanted to tag along, while my 14-year-old daughter…