Beware the Brazilian consulate! I samba-ed into one the other day to apply for a visa (to Brazil- who knew?) expecting all the usual questions- have you ever tried one of our waxes? do you have proof of thong ownership? …etc. But sitting across the bulletproof glass from me was a young, utterly humorless Brazilian…
I am addicted to Google Earth. Every chance I get to play with this incredible program I will. It’s like flying across the globe sans the long lines, airplane food, lost luggage, and jet lag. All you do is type in a destination and the image of the earth starts to spin in the direction…
Where do I go after pouring my heart, soul, and wisdom out in a travel guide? Thailand! Where else? And because this writer deserves a stellar, first-class experience to soothe my aching shoulder muscles from being hunched over a computer for months and months, I’m going to spend a week at the Banyan Tree Resorts…
Spontaneous acts of enjoyment have not been on my “to do” list for quite a while. But now that the book is done, my shoulders feel lighter and my fingers are ready to dial long-lost friends. So, I took the opportunity to slap a celebration together, when my friend Mark Wiser came to visit from…
Motherhood has never been something I’ve dreamt about. On no account have I had romantic notions of a darling baby cooing while we gently sway in a rocking chair. Writing has always been my inspiration-the alchemy of raw thoughts into golden prose. Since I was little I loved scribbling down my rudimentary thoughts. First it…
682 pages, 50 chapters, seven months, many glasses of champagne in foreign cities, rewrite after rewrite, and here I am. I have finished my great opus. For the next few days I’ll be going through and checking for mistakes and inconsistencies. I have to admit that I kinda lost track of the 50 places. I…
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how many things have dropped off the deep end of our cultural landscape. And I shudder to bring up what I’m about to bring up in the midst of so many more monolithic, troubling items which blink with de-sensitizing regularity across our American radar screen. In just a few short…