Real statements people have made to me that I bet they don’t say to most other immigrants: “Oh, I don’t think of YOU as an immigrant…” “Don’t change your accent. It’s so charming.” “People from your country always sound so intelligent.” “Why would you leave there to live here?” Things people have said to me… Continue reading Your Friendly, Neighborhood Immigrant
Category: Me
Candlemas
Once again, the French demonstrate the art of living the good life. While we Pennsylvanians are getting up at midnight in sub-zero temperatures to watch a rodent pulled out of a log, the French are celebrating Feb 2 by sitting down to crepes. I thought pancakes were just for the ‘oh no, Lent is almost… Continue reading Candlemas
Performative
Then I was always destined to be a reader. My parents read to me. My parents read around me. And as soon as I could read, it was what I wanted to do with most of my time. So I developed a feel for language and an unusually sophisticated vocabulary for a child. Which, you… Continue reading Performative
History Has Its Eyes On You
If you live in the United States, things are bumpy right now.So much is happening and changing that it’s easy to lose perspective. (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life Consider this: Former news anchor Dan Rather is, as I write, 93. That means he has lived through almost 40% of the entire history of… Continue reading History Has Its Eyes On You
You’re The One That I Want
You are unique. But we are not so unique. When humans get together, we follow the same patterns. We repeat the same mistakes. We discover the same joys as our ancestors did. Isn’t She Lovely? We are stunned when a baby takes their first breath…though they’ve been doing it for at least 300,000 years. We… Continue reading You’re The One That I Want
How I Consume Books Now That Amazon is Evil
I own a first-generation Kindle. I was a member of Audible back in their pre-Amazon days when you could only listen to their stuff on a pre-iPod mp3-player and when they had different compression rates (Level 1 sounded terrible but downloaded quickly and didn’t take up much space on your device. It was also barely… Continue reading How I Consume Books Now That Amazon is Evil
Walking On Sunshine
I listened to the Katrina and the Waves song, Walking On Sunshine the other day.I loved that song when it came out. And yet, when I listened to the lyrics this time, I laughed out loud.Here was a girl in love who said,“Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down/ ’Cause… Continue reading Walking On Sunshine
Who Are You?
A reintroduction I’m Julie. I am (currently) 53. I’ve lived in two nation states. I’ve studied history and am a lifelong political and social junkie. I’ve kept a journal since 1985 and I’ve been blogging since I discovered it was a thing (1996, maybe?). I write stories, and encourage others to do the same. I… Continue reading Who Are You?
Who Speaks, Next?
I was listening to Werner Herzog on the Conan O’Brien podcast, over the past week. As I listened to the calm voice of this man who were born in the middle of–and on the wrong side of–World War II, talking about environmentalism and the glorious potential of technology and Ai along with its obvious risks;… Continue reading Who Speaks, Next?
Say It Out Loud
This is Not Normal. This Is Not Acceptable. On Day 1 of the first Trump administration, I watched, mouth open, as his press secretary lied about something so seemingly unimportant that it boggled my mind: the size of the crowd at the inauguration. It was—we could all see with our own eyes—not the biggest crowd… Continue reading Say It Out Loud