Author: Shahri
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Respect For Your Time
Are you late, early, or on time? I am basically an on-time person. It wasn’t always the case. I used to be late. The alarm didn’t go off. There was road construction. It took longer to get there than I thought it would. I couldn’t get off the phone. I got lost. Excuses, excuses, excuses.…
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Class of 2014
My daughter graduates from high school this week. There have been a series of events leading up to graduation including the Senior prom, a Senior trip, a Senior sunrise, a Senior sunset, a Senior hike, a Senior bar-b-que, a Senior camp out, and several other Senior adventures that I can’t remember the names of. Why…
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The World’s Best Plumber
Saturday evening my husband went into the downstairs bathroom and found it flooded with water, coffee grounds, noodles, and other items we won’t mention. Apparently we had a blocked sewer drain and it backed up into the nearest sink. Ugh. Sunday morning was Father’s Day but I called Tom, just in case. We refer to…
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3, 2, 1 . . .
Our stomach clenches. We feel tight. We know it will be okay, it’s the movies, but we get sucked in. Every. Single. Time. Perhaps it is an end of the world movie, perhaps an old war movie, it doesn’t matter, they are all the same. Total termination. There is a bomb that needs to be…
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Checking The Thesaurus For Love
As a child I was taught that the opposite of love is hate. When looking up the word love in a thesaurus, my childhood teachings are confirmed. The most common antonym for love is hate although dislike, ill will, enmity, and animosity occur as well. As I got older, I came to believe that the…
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Don’t Go There
When my grandmother was a little girl her dad was paid at the end of each day. He came home with a pocket full of coins. Those coins were sorted into old tea cups that sat on the window sill. One tea cup was for rent and one was for food. Every need had a…
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Guilty Pleasure
The house is warm. I have all the windows open and the birds are singing. Somewhere off in the distance I hear children laughing and playing. I hear a lawnmower. There is no wind, the chimes on the deck are silent, the aspen trees are still. My husband is off on his walk and my…
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What Is Home?
Home is where the heart is. At least that’s what “they” say. You know who “they” are, the ubiquitous “they”. I rarely trust what “they” say, “they” have lead me wrong on numerous occasions. Here’s a picture of my friend, we went on a hike today. She is getting ready to go back to Russia.…
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Impossible Life
Karen Joy Fowler said: “All parents want an impossible life for their children – happy beginning, happy middle, happy ending. No plot of any kind. What uninteresting people would result if parents got their way.” I watch the blue jays push their babies out of the nest. I watch the bear fight with her child,…
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Persian Woman
People ask me what it was like to be a girl and grow up with a Persian father. My dad was an immigrant from Iran, nearly 60 years ago, back before Iran was considered part of the axis of evil. Telling the whole story would be a book, perhaps even a trilogy, but here is…
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Snow Flower
This is a snow flower. Its scientific name is Sarcodes sanguinea. It does not use photosynthesis since it is actually a parasite, receiving nutrients from fungi that attach to tree roots. When I was a young girl there were dozens of them between my home and school. So far this year, I have only seen…
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Too Many Skills
After careful review of my resume, they told me I have too many skills. Yup, you read this right, I am OVER QUALIFIED for virtually everything. It doesn’t help that I do not have a college degree, I have LIFE EXPERIENCE! My number one skill is storytelling. It’s a skill that serves me well in…
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Musings About Music
Song lyrics can be pure poetry, or they can be just plain stupid. I actually prefer songs in a foreign language, preferably one that I don’t understand at all. I like to hear the human voice, but I don’t want the words to ruin the music. Lyrics in English that are hard to understand are…
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Get Creative
Take some time to do something creative. Write a poem, take a photograph, finger paint. You say you are not creative? I disagree. You are. Creativity comes in many forms. Cooking is creative, find a way to have fun with food. Sing a song, even if you only sing in the shower when no one…
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The Faces of Facebook
The Facebook posts on my wall fall into certain categories. “Share if you agree” and “Can we get a million likes for . . . “ are my least favorite. “Share if you love your child.” Duh. Of course I love my child. Why do I have to share this? Do I have to share…
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Good News and Bad News
My husband would rather walk than drive. Not that he doesn’t enjoy a long road trip, he does, but why drive to the coffee house when you can walk? Why drive to the store if all you need fits in a backpack? Walking is his mode of transport. I enjoy walking but do not have…
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Business Mixers
Yesterday I went to two different business mixers. They were each unique and unlike any of the mixers I have attended in the past. Most business mixers consists of little groups of people who know each other, who hope to give their card to someone new, but who are more interested in staying in their…
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Fight or Flight
There is a feeling, in the pit of your stomach, when things go wrong. It is the feeling we got, thousands of years ago, to let us know that a predator is near. Do we run at it with a spear or away from it as fast as our legs can go? We make a…
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May 22, 1964 to May 22, 2014
The Great Society. Lyndon B. Johnson’s vision for the end to poverty and racial injustice. His vision included the creation of an educated society. It was a fifty year plan, and this week marks the fiftieth anniversary. Some of the things he envisioned have come to pass. Others were lost in the battle of the…
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Thank You Tourists!
We had a mild Winter. Mild is an understatement, it was virtually non-existent. A true, big-time drought. We skipped Spring, too, and went straight into Summer. It is warm, the lake is calm, and the flowers are sprouting. There are concerns about the water shed, and concerns about fires. It is a worry but it…
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Tips For Your Cafe
1) Do not yell at each other in the kitchen, in English or in Spanish. We hear you and we understand. 2) Get my order right. I did not order anything special, it was straight off the menu. If you serve specialty coffees, get those right, too. 3) Be sure I have utensils, napkin, water.…
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Prom Dress?
Why does fashion go in cycles? My daughter has been hunting for a prom dress and every store has the same stuff. We have been to Macy’s, Dillard’s, and Nordstrom’s but we have also been to the boutiques, places that should have unique and individual looking dresses. They do not. The style this year is…
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Conversations With Meals
Conversations with friends are best at lunch. The flavors and thoughts flow gently and freely when my pals and I eat together. We solve the problems of the world and we encourage each other. There’s lots of laughter, we interrupt the other tables as we get louder in our enthusiasm, and the laughter stays with…
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Social Situations
We all have moments of awkwardness in social situations. When I was young, I was worried if what I was wearing would be appropriate. I agonized over it. To add to my worries, I was afraid I may say the wrong thing or appear stupid. I did not want to eat in front of people…
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May The Fourth Be With You
Just a small note for all Star Wars fans. Hope you are having a great day. Yes, I was there on opening day for the original movie, the line was long, the wait was worth it. And yes, the special effects wowed me like nothing before or since.
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Following My Passions
Following our passion is how we live a full life. Passions don’t change, but they are defined differently as we change and grow. When I was a young girl, I wanted to be an actress. I loved being on-stage. I loved the people and the way acting told a story. I worked as a stand-up…
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What a Difference a Day Makes
Spring at Tahoe is snow, sun, rain, snain (that’s a mixture of snow and rain), wind, calm, breeze, and other weather patterns we don’t think of until they happen. This year we had a light winter but it doesn’t stop us from having what my friends call “daffodil smashing season” where a heavy, wet snow…
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Habits and Reflections
It takes about 30 days to get into a habit. If you exercise every day for 30 days, you will develop the habit of exercising every day. It will no longer be a chore. The problem with habits – they are easier to break than they are to create. You can write a blog every…
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Write, Rest, Edit
When you want to write, just write. Do not think about what you are writing, do not edit it as you go along, just write out a stream of consciousness until you are empty. Once you are empty continue writing for another couple of hours. Don’t just think, write. It is in that last hour…