Lori Duff Writes
It had to be 1982, which would have made me 12, when my parents went off, perfumed, cologned, and dressed up, to their 20th high school reunion. They came back later that evening in a gossipy post-mortem, all a-twtitter that some of their classmates had become grandparents. The ones who had kids right out of…
My Dad is in the hospital. This, naturally, is cause for alarm, and I worry. My parents live 600 miles away from me, so it isn’t so easy for me to just go and check as often as I’d like. The older my parents get, the more I fret about each thing that occurs. Every…
I have always looked like I came from Russian peasant stock. I have a face that looks like it was carved from a potato. My broad shoulders were designed for swinging a pickaxe through Siberian permafrost to get at root vegetables, and my hips are wide enough to bear a whole passel of fat babies. …
I will not deny that I am older than my 47 years might imply. I’m not particularly young at heart, I’m a soul that belongs in assisted living. I know this for many reasons, not the least of which was that I went last night, with my good friend Eleni, to see Rick Springfield and…
I’m forty now (Ok, forty-six) A decent age I’ve had my fix Of parties, hoo-has, galas, and more Of drunken evenings on the shore My worries now Have changed in kind I wonder if I’ve lost my mind If you can see my whiskery chin My sagging butt, my wrinkled grin My weekends…
March is, as I’m sure you have absolutely no idea, Essential Tremor Awareness Month. Every disease seems to have some kind of celebration these days, some whole months, some weeks, and some days. Thursday, for example, is, I think, “Infected Hangnail Day” and you should wear something of an angry red color to show solidarity.…
I’m now old enough for Home Medical Equipment – specifically, a CPAP machine. Along with age comes wisdom. Also, extra body fat, wiry chin hairs, and an inability to distinguish one pop song from another. Me, I got an extra bonus – the ability to snore. I snore loudly and dramatically, so I’m told. My…
The other day, my daughter was sad for reasons only truly understood by another 12 year old girl. It was a Saturday, one of the few days in which I had nothing in particular to do, and to celebrate planned on doing laundry and scrubbing the grout in the bathroom. Marin moaned something pitiful and…
Right about the time I graduated from college, my friends started getting engaged. It got to the point where every week there was either an engagement, a shower, or a wedding. This was what my social life was: pretending to care when someone unwrapped a Mr. Coffee, elbowing other women wearing uncomfortable dresses…
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Wonder Woman. I even got a fake Wonder Woman tattoo and put it on my tricep. (Still not willing to get a real one.) I loved the Wonder Woman TV show when I was a kid, though to be honest I can’t remember the plot of a single specific episode.…