Yesterday was April 25th. It was Amanda Maxson’s eighth birthday. It was my first love’s 36th birthday. I doubt he even knows that I know it is his birthday. I loved him almost faithfully from 5th grade to 9th, and I think he never thought about me twice. And it was Lynne Liptak’s 36th birthday, […]

I was partially raised by a grandmother who was fastidious about language. She was brilliant– excelling in math and language skills and an artist to boot. She was very keen on my having good language skills: I remember my older sister and I (or is it “me”?), who couldn’t have been more than 9 and […]

A friend of mine got a brand new laptop in the mail yesterday. Two weeks before, to the day, her old beloved laptop bit the dust. Hermes was its name, I think. My laptop hasn’t got a name. In fact, until tworivers’ laptop died and its name was revealed, the thought of naming a laptop […]

From the vantage point of my couch, where I spend my afternoons with swollen foot aloft, I have a lovely view of the trees that line my backyard. And today, for the first time in months, I watched leaves– full-fledged leaves, new and pale green, backs coated silver, held by slender stems and miracle, blowing […]

Bill Deasy opened the Hope Festival on Saturday, and so has the honor of forever being the First Act. He was also, incidentally, the first real musician I ever knew. His Bailey and Deasy duo were the draw to the student union in college, and the really cool people also heard them play off campus […]

Perhaps you remember Wednesday. Wednesday was my Bad Day, and Thursday was only moderately better. I was still on crutches, and I was still a single parent at the end of the day. Friday too. And by Friday night, when Bill came home after midnight, I was getting Cranky. He was home so late that […]

I’ve been asked about the title of my blog. The question was, if I remember correctly, “Why?” So I thought I’d answer here, today. The blog is named for a favorite poem by Robert Frost, and also my birthdate. I would have called it just plain “Birches,” but someone else has used that name; you […]

There are some really wonderful people in my life. Really, really wonderful people. Today, for example, Carol came, and she dusted the yellow pollen off the blinds in my living room, cleaned out my vacuum and vacuumed my living room. She also swept my wooden floors. Faten went to Costco, but not before she phoned […]

Outside in my front yard, right now, the crabapple tree is white with flowers. Absolutely White. It has been blooming for some days, and even when it looked as though it had no more room for flowers, I still saw buds as yet unopened. Now some of the blossoms are beginning to fade. The green […]

I’m not writing this for pity, nor for cries of “Poor Rebecca!”, nor, even, for anyone to come rushing to my aid. I am writing this for catharsis, and to whine. I had a terrible day today. Terrible. Awful. Absolutely the Worst in Recent Memory. First of all, my mother left. I knew it was […]