Posted on August 30, 2012
Hi Everyone,
Although we’ve been winding up for one of my daughters’ wedding for the past six months, I’ve been very quiet about it. Maybe out of superstition, but it just seemed smarter not to talk a lot about it until it was over. But we’ve been slowly laying plans for it and organizing it, for these many months. The wedding took place last Saturday, in our San Francisco home. » read more »
Filed Under Family | 35 Comments
Posted on August 20, 2012
Hi Everyone,
Very exciting time right now!!! The kids are home, family and friends are arriving…wedding week is upon us! I’ll be back next week with a new blog. Until then…
Love, Danielle
Filed Under Family | 12 Comments
Posted on August 13, 2012
Hi Everyone,
It feels like the 4th of July, which kicked off the summer, was only 5 minutes ago, and the summer has raced by. And I’ve been busy. As always, I feel like my supposed to be lazy summer was action packed.
Let’s see, what have I done? I came back to France in June, saw lots of friends, and spent two weeks with my children in July, a week of it in the South of France. For the first time in many, many years, we did not spend time on a boat, but relaxed at a hotel we have gone to every year since their childhood. And we had fun together. We’re incredibly lazy when we go on vacation together. We lay in the sun, ate too much, went out for dinner once, and the rest of the time, ate at the hotel. No one went fishing, they all swam every day. The weather was hot, which makes us all lazy. And we had lunch and dinner together every day. And for 5 days of it, there was a Mistral wind, which is a gale force wind, in spite of sunny weather. We laughed a lot, most of us went to bed early, and I lay in the sun in the daytime for many hours (despite my children’s warnings that if I keep doing that, I will one day look like a prune. But I always feel better with a tan). » read more »
Filed Under Family, Paris, Travel | 2 Comments
Posted on May 29, 2012
Another one of those major landmarks seems to have snuck up on me when I wasn’t looking. I tend to be so busy on a daily basis, just keeping my life organized, being in touch with my kids, hoping to help them solve their problems, meeting my writing deadlines and leading my life with all its minor details, and then BLAM!!! Suddenly you are face to face with one of those moments that stop you in your tracks, and you realize that something enormously important just happened.
After working very hard, getting terrific grades, and the usual grousing about how tired she was of school and couldn’t wait to finish—–my youngest daughter just graduated from college. WOWWWWW!!!! Talk about a landmark event. I’m not sure even she realized how momentous it would be, and for a while, like all my kids, she threatened not to ‘walk at graduation’, because it would be ‘so boring and stupid’, and then she decided to do it. (Damn right, I’ve been waiting all these years for that moment, so I could watch her walk in her cap and gown, and feel giddy as she did it!!). She was taking finals, finishing papers, and doing all the stuff people do before they graduate, and I was busy planning a family lunch for her and a party afterwards. I don’t know why, but with major events, one seems to get distracted by the details. And then suddenly, the day was here. The whole family flew in last Thursday night, and we’re a big group. » read more »
Filed Under Family | 7 Comments
Posted on May 21, 2012
As I mentioned to you in my last blog, we are having a wedding in the family this summer, which is a joyful event (especially since we love my daughter’s fiancé), and I’m busily planning the wedding with my daughter, and trying to attend to every detail. And I have to admit, there have been some very funny moments in doing so—-and also some immensely touching ones. Only one of my other daughters has married so far (the younger ones are still too young, by today’s standards, and even this bride is on the young side), and it’s been a while since I planned a wedding for my oldest daughter. And each bride and each wedding is different. And the thing to keep in mind is that it is her wedding, not mine. In years past, when I was young, parents commandeered the whole wedding, invited their friends, decided the style of the wedding, the food, the music, and you were lucky to have enough of your friends there to have a good time (and music that you didn’t have to be 80 years old to enjoy dancing to). Today, the bride and groom decide and run the show, which to be honest, seems right, much better, and much more fun for them (it IS their wedding!!). I had much more fun at my wedding when I married their father, than I did the first time, because we were grown up, had been previously married, and we had no parents to dictate the wedding, we ran the show. We invited our friends, chose the location and size and style of wedding we wanted, and we had a ball, and so did all our friends. » read more »
Filed Under Family, Relationships | 2 Comments
Posted on May 14, 2012
Hi Everybody!
It’s still rainy, cold and gray in Paris—-what kind of May is this? People write love songs and have dreams about spring in Paris, and none of them include long-johns and umbrellas!!! And either there is some kind of worldwide lousy weather thing happening, or I’m cursed, since I arrived from the same kind of unseasonable weather in New York, Los Angeles before that (pouring rain and freezing cold), and 3 weeks of miserable cold weather in San Francisco. And to top it off, I’m going to New York in 2 days, checked the weather, sure it would be balmy and warm with spring in full swing, and discovered that the weather in New York is more of the same. Yerghk!!! I hope it warms up and dries out somewhere that I am soon, since I’m heading off on my usual rounds to see the kids. » read more »
Posted on January 30, 2012
Hi Everyone,
A bit of family news here, my college senior daughter has been going to every concert she can get to for the last ten years. She knows more about the young music scene than anyone I know. And in the last few years she goes to a ‘show’ or concert every night of the week, and sometimes two shows. And she has decided to share the experience, and her expertise, with others, —she just started a blog called “Zscrossing”, telling those who read her blog about the shows she goes to. If there is someone in your family who enjoys the same kind of music she does (loud!!! and a lot younger than what i listen to!!), check out zscrossing. I’m very proud of her!!! She wants to embark on a career in music production after she graduates, and might like to become a sound engineer or sound technician, after some more studies. Very exciting stuff!!! Take a look at her blog!!! www.zcrossing.com
Love, Danielle
Filed Under Family, Kids | 5 Comments
Posted on January 23, 2012
I just had such a sweet experience that I had to share it with you. One of my daughters went skiing for the weekend, she lives in LA, and I volunteered to baby sit for her very elderly 15 year old dog. And tonight, someone had to meet her at the airport between two flights, to bring her dog for the trip back to LA. I started a book yesterday, and usually when I write, I don’t leave my office (or my home) until I finish. I don’t get dressed (I wear warm old nightgowns with sweaters over them—not a pretty sight, but cozy on cold nights), I don’t go out, I don’t see anyone, I often don’t even read phone messages. I just lock myself up until I finish the first draft, because if I stop, » read more »
Filed Under Family, Uncategorized, Writing | 20 Comments
Posted on December 19, 2011
Whatever your religious or non-religious convictions, the holidays hit most of us pretty hard. I know very few people who can thread their way through these loaded days, go on with their golf game, reading the newspaper, or cleaning their oven, without being at least somewhat impacted by these important days. (And if you can get by without being shaken up by them, more power to you!!!). It’s not just about the hype of what we’re supposed to expect, or how great it’s going to be (maybe), or the present you desperately want (and you get a poinsettia instead, or a fruitcake—I HATE fruitcake!! It’s not chocolate. If I’m going to pile on calories, let it be on something chocolate, not dried fruit). Our expectations start building in our childhoods, and even as adults, there’s a little kid in us that wants it to be perfect, for Santa to know just what we want and show up with it, and all the people we love to be nice to us. Sometimes all of that happens, and sometimes it just doesn’t, and when it doesn’t, we get sad. And important holidays seem to magnify everything we feel: Either REALLY happy, or really sad. » read more »
Filed Under Family, Holidays, Uncategorized | 10 Comments
Posted on November 21, 2011
Hi Everyone,
For the past several years, I’ve been spending Halloween in Europe, and finally this year, the inevitable happened….with one ‘child’ (my youngest) a senior in college, four others in their early twenties, and the oldest three grown up and married…..NONE of my children dressed up for Halloween this year. I never thought that day would come, and just thinking about it, a bevy of their costumes come to mind….the Octopus in Little Mermaid…..the Little Mermaid herself….(the hooker in “Pretty Woman”…oops), witches, nuns, the year my oldest daughter dressed up as a pumpkin, with green dyed hair and an orange face, and then couldn’t get the orange dye off her face for 2 weeks…her boyfriend dressing up as her dog, dropping plastic ‘fleas’ all over the house….vampires, fake blood, and finally, my own Grand Finale dressed as a Whoopi Cushion a few years ago. Definitely, some memorable moments. I’m actually really sad to see this era end. But there it is….no more Halloween costumes for us. It took a while, many, many years in fact. And for all those years, they started planning their Halloween costumes as soon as summer came to an end. » read more »
Filed Under Family, Holidays | 9 Comments