Over thirty-five years of marriage, Mike and I have grown accustomed to watching the news every evening after dinner. In New York, we enjoyed the mix of local and world reports that kept us informed about important events. Not so South Florida. Beginning around May first, hurricane hype dominates the airwaves.

A long time ago, in a city 1,300 miles away, I lived for culture -- the theater, the opera, libraries and bookstores straining under the weight of greater and lesser minds. My evenings were spent at Lincoln Center or on Broadway. Saturdays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA were inspirational.

There should have been a sign on our front door

"DANGER: Maternal Instinct on Overdrive"

1.  It’s only your hair.
2.  You have a great shaped head.
3.  Can I rub my hands on your head?
4.  Just think of all the money you are saving from not buying shampoo.
5.  It will grow back.
6.  At least you have your health.
7.  No one will look at you differently.
8.  At least you don’t have to style your hair.

There is nothing I hate more than having a doctor’s appointment. Usually kept lingering beyond my appointment time, a condescending staff and a waiting room infected with other people’s germs (and kids) makes me cranky. I always tell the gynecologist that I would prefer to have root canal without anesthesia. To be fair, I tell the dentist that I would rather give birth to triplets in an open field. Doctor’s “visits” are not social calls!

With 1 in 100 kids diagnosed with autism, we're in the throes of an epidemic, but one that I believe researchers are bound to solve.

So far, geneticists have been able to link autism spectrum disdorders to genetic issues. Genetic coding abnormalities can lay dormant in a child or they can express themselves from a host of environmental triggers, toxins, etc.

On Friday, July 23rd, 300 members of the Service Employees International Union, an organization representing health care workers in the State of Florida, voiced their opposition to Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott and Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene in a planned march from the PBC Convention Center to City Place plaza. Their complaint? Both men are self-made millionaires, who aren't sharing their bounty with the less fortunate.

Today I met up with some great friends for lunch near my old daytime stomping grounds. I hadn't been to the cafe since being let go earlier last year and wondered if I would see any other old colleagues. I saw a few folks who looked familiar from the hallways but what surprised me most was the "feel" of the place and especially of the pace, particularly when we got up to leave.

So small was the page 5 Associated Press article at the top right corner of the Palm Beach Post that I almost missed reading it. In fact, it was one of only two stories on the page – both dwarfed by ads for the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, air conditioner repairs and a shoe sale. As I flipped the page, the first few words of the caption caught my eye and, truthfully, I rebelled at the thought of turning back.

For many years, my husband was a police physician in the town where we lived in New Jersey. Day in and day out, officers would come for treatment of illnesses and injuries and, during their appointment, relate tales of their adventures on the force. Some were hair-raising stories of lives threatened and, most often, saved. Others were humorous bits of interaction between themselves and our local citizens. 

Hollywood continues to pass up opportunities to portray women without hair in a fashionable and dignified manner.  General Hospital’s current series has fictional character Shirley Smith undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer.

Seeing Is Not Something We Do Only With Our Eyes

When my son was just about six years old, we arrived home from school one spring day to find an old man standing on the corner across from our house. Always curious beyond my control, Michael rushed over to see what he was up to.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Michael demanded.

Quietly, the man replied, “Listen. Do you hear that? Do you? That’s a scarlet tanager.”

Each time I read a new piece of backstory about the mother-daughter alleged suicide-homicide in Coppell, Tex., I'm dumbfounded. This story has completely captured my attention and especially my emotions the past couple of days. We really are all actors, aren't we? This is proof of it. And a mayor of a well-to-do suburb of a large metropolitan area. Surely they must have been doing well? Depends on how you define well.

This is one blog entry that I was hoping not to write.  After living with Alopecia Universalis for 7 years (total hair loss), I was given a short reprieve.  My hair began to sprout in March ‘08 and has steadily provided me with “cosmetic” quality hair.  My son was married in October, and I was fortunate to attend his wedding with my own hair.  It was an unexpected gift. 0 new comments

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