2015: I turn 58

2015: Back in Provincetown, I sit still and stare at the water. The last couple of years, all my writing efforts have poured into this current novel and apparently all my self-worth as well. When I see people, they ask if …

2013: I turn 56

2013: One week a month in Provincetown. Space is opening all around me. I plan ahead, run the dates by Cal, and start booking flights. In January, I stay at The Watermark Inn. It’s closed. But I’ve stayed here before and it’s …

2011: I turn 54

2011: In January, I finish up winter residency and fall under the spell of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad. February is AWP in Washington, DC, where I spot Josh Ritter in the bar and actually talk to him. In March, …

2008: I turn 51

As you might guess from the length of yesterday’s and today’s posts–the squares turning into rectangles–writing these short is getting more difficult. The years feel unwieldy now rather than obscure. I’m working to contain rather than to remember. 2008: I start …

2007: I turn 50

So the music is back… 2007: Turning 50 gives me pause but not much. To celebrate, I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before. Cal and I plan a trip to a private island in Belize where we have a one-room villa with walls …

2006: I turn 49

For the past few years and for a few more to come, I don’t remember what music I was listening to, and I wonder why that is. I’m sure Dave Matthews still, and Jackson Browne always. James Taylor always. And …

2005: I turn 48

2005: In January I attend the San Diego State Agent Conference. Ten minutes with each agent. Speed dating. Bobby’s a junior and thinks he wants to go to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. We plan a visit for spring …

2004: I turn 47

And just like that… I’m almost 50. 2004: My stomach issues post-hysterectomy require a trip to the Mayo Clinic. From there I go straight to Miraval–one of their ads caught my attention–but for my next spa visit, I will return …

2003: I turn 46

2003: I try the Golden Door Spa, but it feels like famine. While I’m there, I do a silent meditation walk, and before I can stop myself, I’m judging the way people walk. We listen to Dave Matthews as Bobby learns …

2000: I turn 43

At dinner one new year’s eve, my father told us that one day it wouldn’t be 19 anything; it would be 2000. And when it was the year 2000, he said, he would be 67. He laughed, as if that were …

1999: I turn 42

1999: Across the pond, the euro is born, but here at home, there are carpools times a thousand, dentist appointments, doctor appointments, snacks for all the various games, watching the various games, school conferences, the grocery times a thousand, the meals that …

not reading: 134/365

I’m not reading enough, especially for a summer vacation. ~  365 true things about me why this daily practice

reading: 94/365

I read a lot of books at one time. Right now I’m reading Abigail Thomas’s What Comes Next and How to Like It (memoir); Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed (essay anthology); Donald Hall’s Essays After Eighty, Hermione Lee’s Penelope Fitzgerald A Life, …

wxw: tomales bay 2014

Just a few weeks ago I was driving out of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge while debating with Andre Dubus III and Kwame Dawes the pros and cons of this age of connectivity in which we live. What …

shakespeare update: year one, part 2

Romeo & Juliet was possibly the first Shakespeare play I ever came into contact with. In Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Romeo & Juliet. I would have been eleven. And Romeo was also probably the first naked man I ever saw. I just re-watched this movie …

shakespeare update: one year, part I

I’ve read, and listened to, 12 plays, roughly one a month. It’s not that any one play takes so long to read. I can easily read one in two or three hours. But I’m trying to read other books as well. …

life drawing

If you’re looking for a good book–a sure thing, a book you can sink down into and a world you can get lost in–you’re in luck. Robin Black’s debut novel, Life Drawing, was published on Tuesday. The story of a marriage between a painter and …

shakespeare-the two gentlemen of verona

The First Folio was the publication in 1623 of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, which were divided into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. (Not included were Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen.) The Two Gentlemen of Verona is classified as …

shakespeare-richard iii

So I read Richard III. And I listened to Richard III.  And although the 1995 movie starring Annette Bening was not available for rent, I did watch the 1955 movie directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. The movie was torturous even though …