Blog
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That Moment When…
- September 6, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
9 Comments
It doesn’t take much to get to me these days. There are little moments that knock at my heart like tiny little baby fists, not particularly painful but still palpable. I can never be sure when one of these moments will float by like a dust mite or take up residence in my mind, pushing
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The Books I’ve Loved in 2018
- August 14, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: books
One of the worst things about having chronic headaches was how difficult it was for me to read books. Not even difficult – nearly impossible, especially in the year before my surgery. Every so often I would plow through a book that really captured my attention (Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, for example), but
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The Day I Damn Near Lost My Mind
- May 28, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: Uncategorized
Even though there’s rarely anything interesting or unexpected, I still love to get the mail. A magazine, a package from Amazon, even a packet of coupons from my grocery store – it’s like when I was a kid and would grab the prize in the cereal box before my little brother could get it. Though
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It’s All in My Head
- April 27, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: Uncategorized
Today, I made quiche. Today I fried bacon, shredded Jarlsberg cheese that I tossed with a little flour, and chopped green onions. I mixed those ingredients with eggs and milk and a dash of nutmeg, plus a little salt and pepper. Then I poured the mixture into two warm piecrusts and baked them for
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How to Live at the Residence Inn
- February 5, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
Unlike Eloise, who lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York City and said, of hotel living: I absolutely love the Plaza! I have not expressed the same joy during my six weeks at the Residence Inn. It’s not because there’s anything terribly wrong with the Residence Inn in Bellevue, Washington. In fact, as Residence
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How to Keep From Getting Old
- January 29, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
Lunch with my girlfriends is never dull. Whichever group gathers for a bowl of pho or a sashimi lunch (salad and miso soup included), there are always things – big, thought-provoking things – to talk about. There are little things, too, but it’s those big things that we all take home with us and think
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Making Room for My Young Adults
- January 15, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
Young adults still need their parents. Those of us with 20-something children know this to be true. Some need us more, some need us far less than we’d like them to, but sooner or later, they will come to us—their older and wiser parents—with a problem too complicated or painful or expensive or dangerous to
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When Something Happens
- December 31, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
You know that old Yiddish expression that translated means “Man plans, God laughs?” Well God ha ha ha’d at us big time. I mean, really, really big. A few years ago, my husband and I decided to downsize from our family home, where we had raised our children and lived for 24 years, to a cozy
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Living By the Book
- November 20, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
The notebooks sit on a shelf in my office, mocking me. They are brightly colored – orange, turquoise blue, red – and they are, for the most part, empty. I bought each of them in a moment of weakness, after seeing the words “bullet journal” or “daily schedule” or “personal record.” I saw ads for
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Is There a “Real” College Experience?
- October 1, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
My two kids both went away to college – one across the country and one an hour plane ride away. They didn’t have much choice – my husband and I had, from their earliest days in school, told them that we not only expected them to go to college but, in my husband’s words, expected