April 2010 Archives

i want one achingly, the way i wanted a Magic 8-Ball when i was ten years old. 

My mother was an avid gardener who knew the Latin names for plants, but I can’t even remember their common names. Too many oxymorons.

Ever since that dream about my childhood home, I've been wanting to go there. I'd put off the trip for years because my sister said everything was gone.

Susan remembers a story Mary Gordon told at the Albany Book Expo. Gordon—the story goes—went to her writing room every morning. Her children understood that she was not to be disturbed. But one day Gordon sensed the presence of a child on the other side of the closed door.

No, not really! But the metaphorical Building Code Inspector sure has wreaked havoc in my writing life, slapping those official-looking “stop work orders” on every attempt to finish a novel.

I wish I hadn’t been so negative in my advice to the prospective landlord. Yes, student tenants can be a trial, but they can also be a joy… if you lay the groundwork. So, in sixteen easy steps, here’s how to start a student rental business…

A Realtor from Southern California emailed, asking for recommendations on starting a student housing business. Yikes! Does that poor guy realize what he’s getting into?

Well, not all at the same time. But it’s amazing how they pile up after twenty-five years.

After watching the I.M. Pei documentary, I dreamed about my childhood home, a mid-century modern split level with odd angles and big windows like an Eichler House. But in my dream, someone had bought the house and remodeled it beyond recognition…

Watching American Masters last night, I learned that I.M. Pei was born in 1917, just a week after Jim. Jim seems really old to me, unsteady and muddled, but not I.M. Pei…