Sunny Sunday with Marrakech Trekkers

Today marked the first hike of a new group and I’m so glad I joined.  It was the maiden voyage of the Marrakech Trekkers—almost literally— given the rain -swollen river that gushed across the road we needed to cross.  On the other side were mountain villages we’d hike around and through, lookouts over green valleys and the snow covered Atlas Mountains. Even before we…

Past, Present, Future Dickens of a Christmas

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. –A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, made a US federal holiday by Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War, is still a day set aside to stop the striving, shopping, doing (unless volunteering to feed the hungry and shelter the cold) in order to JUST BE…with family, with friends, with our Creator from whom all blessings flow.  The older I get the more I am determined to…

Love’s Eternal Summer

Today is the 2nd Wedding Anniversary of  my friends, Monica and Alessandro.  I Skyped with Moni this morning—they now live in Vigo, Spain– and neither of us could believe that two years have passed since the day they said “I Do.” I met them in Nashville:  Alessandro at the first-ever Mad Donna’s salsa night five years ago and Monica a couple of years later…

True Blue

I’ll have a blue Christmas. But not the kind Elvis sang about. I had those blues all spring as I fretted over fall when my nest would empty. I’d always said that when my chicks left, I’d fly away, too, preferably to anywhere under the Tuscan sun. Or, if I stayed in town, to a bungalow in East Nashville. But when the whole Metamorphosis-…

Happy Birthday to Me…Thanks for the Memories

 After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life…There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When…

Dancing on Grapes

April Kim Kim and Mayuresh Last Saturday was as good as it gets. A year ago my friend, April, invited me to Italian Lights, calling me back to my first love affair with a culture. Check it out here: http://atomic-temporary-5988497.wpcomstaging.com/2010/09/18/finding-an-old-love-in-new-venue-italian-lights/. This year, I invited a gang and I was back in Italy again. I spent hours at table exchanging stories, laughs and food with…

Farewell 2010…and a decade

While many may think I’m at a salsa party on NYE, I’m not. I wanted a last night by the tree, my son in the next room playing video games. He’ll graduate in 2012…too soon…and I haven’t had the chance over Christmas break to look back on the past year and thank God for all His blessings. Many firsts in 2010…my students doing a…

Christmas Catch-up

Apologies for disappearing since September…too busy living the “Rich Life” to record it. Since returning from Magic, I was more motivated than ever to grow Classic Coup…and meanwhile the mom/teacher/writer/salsera world kept spinning… Now there’s the holidays when I really run behind…family coming to my house for dinner tonight and still grocery, cooking, gift wrapping to go. No complaints. At Christmas I catch-up on…

Finding an Old Love in New Venue…Italian Lights

Last weekend was full. Saturday at lunch I caught up with Andrew, a former student who graduated almost a decade ago and wants me to read Replay by Ken Grimwood. That night I danced with friends at Jonathan and Pablo’s, the guys who invited Kim and me into the salsa world in March of 2008. Sunday night I ended the weekend with the usual…

So Long Summer…

It has been a great weekend. And a great summer. Saturday I made a video for Classic Coup and saw Buckwheat Zydeco at the Franklin Jazz Festival with friends, April, Carole (her children Emily and Ewin), Emily, and Cheryl. I danced salsa at Mad Donna’s for the first time in much too long. Sunday I celebrated Bionic Woman/Best Bud Kim’s cycling 100 miles…and wished…

Staycation Stop #5: Jaunt in Germantown

Holding tongs with pinky extended, Aunt Cat would fill glasses from the ice bucket, offering us Cokes, coconut macaroons, Fig Newtons, and shortbread cookies with chocolate icing. Classic treats made special by a silver tray.
Something about Germantown reminds me of those genteel weekends in Gracey, Kentucky. It also transports me to adult getaways in Savannah and Charleston.