The Story of my Book Cover
Here it is, the cover of my memoir Jumping Over Shadows. And, incidentally, no sooner had we finalized the cover than the book appeared on amazon, book description, author bio and all. Phew! Deep breath! I have to admit it was a seminal moment to see that. To arrive at the cover, however, was a lesson in not accepting no for [...]
Visiting My Old Life
Yesterday morning I had occasion to walk around the downtown Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville where I used to work eight years ago. It's always interesting to see how much it has changed and yet, how much it is still the same. This is the Starbucks where I used to sit in the window seat (when they still had them), off [...]
Ireland – The Giant’s Causeway, Then and Now
My favorite place in Ireland is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Antrim in Northern Ireland. I love the mystery of it, i.e. the fact that even geologists are not quite sure what created this natural phenomenon. And of course I love the rugged landscape, the stunning coastline, the sheer incredibility of this giant heap of chiseled columns. [...]
August Was…
{August Break 8/31: August was...} ...long! And not as peaceful as this photo, taken from the Rogers Park beach pier on the northside of Chicago. But there were peaceful moments, like the below picnic with friends and family. Mainly, August was a busy month with our construction site going full throttle (lots of finishing to do, lots of things [...]
5 Years Ago
Canyonlands National Park, Utah {August Break 8/18: 5 Years Ago} Five years ago I was taking a road trip with my family: five weeks, Chicago to California and back. It was one of those trips of a lifetime, especially because we managed to take that much time off. That trip was also seminal for me because that's when I began [...]
The Secret to Learning a New Language
Today I'm taking a break from the daily August Break topics because today's is "secret," and I just don't feel like I have anything good to share here. Unless, of course, come to think about it, I could package what I do want to write about as "the secret to learning a new language." Yes, maybe that works! In any [...]