I took a walk through to see the view of the Occoquan River from the beautiful, heated solarium off the back, and sure enough, just outside the windows were rows and rows of neon colored kayaks, all stacked up for the winter. I guess they are planning to break them out for Hot Cocoa and Kayaks, with Santa next weekend…. ? It wouldn’t be the first time “Santa” gets to take center stage on a water vessel in this part of the world. I have never seen it live, but apparently Santa enjoys waterskiing as well in December, down near Old Town Alexandria.
Category Archives: Family
Kensington
Memory lane beckoned on a crisp December morning, as I made my way through minimal traffic and across the American Legion Bridge from Virginia to Maryland. With sound determination, I shut off the GPS and challenged myself to work through “muscle memory” in navigating the streets of upper Bethesda, through Chevy Chase and into lovelyContinue reading “Kensington”
Arlington Hillside
Snow Day Memories
Chantilly Lace
The first time I set foot in my new high school, on a bitter cold, January day in 1984, I despised everything about it. My family moved to the Washington D.C. area in the middle of my freshman year and everything I had come to love about life as a 9th grader in a sleepyContinue reading “Chantilly Lace”
Voyage of Life
Standing there with my students, closing in on the age I once was, I vividly remembered, somewhere in the Great State of New Hampshire circa 1983; a canoe trip and tipping over in very similar rapids filled with rocks. It was a little terrifying.
Just a Dream and the Wind to Carry Me
For the better part of the month of July 2023, we engaged in the work of providing summer learning experiences for many students who continue to struggle in the aftermath of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both of my girls worked the program with me, one as the school clinic aide, in aContinue reading “Just a Dream and the Wind to Carry Me”
Maps, Magnets & Circles
Are you okay? No! I’m not okay! I don’t remember how to get to Fairfax High School, even though I grew up in Fairfax County since 1984. Everything looks different now. I’ll never make it.
Don’t worry, I will help you.
Arlington Hillside
“We didn’t want to stay but we just couldn’t seem to leave, as if somehow being close to what had happened would provide a way for us to help.”
Summer of Recovery
I had an anxiety dream somewhere in that timeframe and before the late June surgery, that I was chaperoning a teenager’s field trip to San Francisco, of all the possible anxiety-inducing cities for someone with limited mobility. I have never even been to San Francisco, so the mind can be funny that way.