A Day at the Aquarium — It’s rather disorienting, looking back, that my husband and I had such a nothing-can-go-wrong-for-us attitude, one that was clearly bound to kick us in the butt, when we decided to leave Venezuela to go to graduate school in Monterey, California with a baby on the way. As it happens, I…

What I learned from reading David Sedaris — David Sedaris is the sort of writer who does not waste the opportunity to create amazing analogies to produce powerful descriptions of people, things and situations. Being a master at humor, his, of course, also make you smile and audibly chuckle or laugh. I’m a dummy who does not get…

Or was it the pilot? — Sometimes things work out for you and you know a higher power had a hand in it. It happened to me when I switched to an earlier flight from Denver to New York and lived to tell about it. …

My first parenting challenge — Being a mother is a wondrous experience but it is above all terrifying, and, in a way, a liability. You love unconditionally and this kind of love always comes with suffering and fear, as I began to discover as soon as I came home from the hospital after giving birth…

For the married and unmarried — Thirty years of marriage. How is it even possible? “It really has felt like two minutes — underwater,” an acquaintance joked the other day about his similarly long marriage. Seeing as I’m very slow when it comes to jokes, this one was simple enough and made me laugh. But I…

We’ve taken at least 30 — Do you ever wish you could mute your spouse when he’s (my spouse is a “he”) telling the same “joke” he has told 137 times and which you’ve made abundantly clear is not funny AT ALL? Have you fantasized you can replay an event so your partner will admit it…

A month ago, I gave it not a thought — Everyone has something to say about Putin and the war in Ukraine. What’s Putin’s state of mind? Is Putin rational? How far would Putin go? Would he actually use nuclear weapons? What should NATO and the rest of the world do? If you listen to The Economist (War in Ukraine…