About Me

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Delray Beach, FL, Westport, MA, United States
Undergraduate degree, Colby College; MA in English, Columbia Teacher's College; former high school English teacher in three states; former owner of interior design co. with MA from R.I. School of Design. Barking Cat Books published my first book in 2009 titled, MINOR LEAGUE MOM: A MOTHER'S JOURNEY THROUGH THE RED SOX FARM TEAMS. My humorous manuscript titled ELDERLY PARENTS WITH ALL THEIR MARBLES: A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR THE KIDS was published in June, 2014. In 2015 A SURVIVAL GUIDE won a gold medal in the self-help category at the Florida Authors & Publishers Association conference. In 2018 Barking Cat Books published my SURVIVING YOUR DREAM VACATION: 75 RULES TO KEEP YOUR COMPANION TALKING TO YOU ON THE ROAD. See website By CLICKING HERE.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Snapshots of Greece and Italy

The following are snapshot memories from our recent trip to Greece.

- Historic Athens surrounded by mountains, the Acropolis lit on a plateau above the city at night, graffiti covering the downtown by day.
Acropolis from our hotel
- A neo-Nazi demonstration in the central plaza across from Parliament, so quiet that only the speaker on the microphone could be heard a block away. The Greek military puffing on cigarettes in an alley around the corner, awaiting trouble.
- Volcanic cliffs of Santorini, with black beaches and towns of white perching recklessly on the outcroppings over the caldera. The caldera: a volcano that collapsed into itself under the sea.
- Olive trees, grape bushes, cacti, and occasional oleanders breaking Santorini's barren landscape that receives only two days of rain a year.
- The blades of quaint windmills jutting unproductively like a snowman's arms, now mere landscape ornaments.  Four hundred churches, each with a blue door.
- Between Santorini and another island cradling a volcano, cruise ships spewing thousands into the narrow streets of Oia and Fira to shop or have wedding photos taken against the spectacular scenery.
Oia, Santorini



- Greeks struggling to use the English they learned in elementary school so they might escape the 28% unemployment of their native country.











The following are snapshot memories from our recent trip
to Italy.

- A plate of the chef's specialty, octopus, for lunch on the island of Ischia, which nearly made me lose breakfast but proved to be delicious.

- A curly white coiffure on our driver from Rome to Anzio, whose three-piece suit and dazzling cuff links should have signaled he would drive as slowly as possible to collect an extra two hours' fee.
- The American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, where 8,000 are buried following the battle of Anzio and where we found Charley's uncle's name on the marble "Missing in Action" wall.
- The Italians' love of American music, movies, "Levi's," neon or leopard or zebra-striped high-top sneakers, and tee shirts that made no sense.  Examples we saw on the shirts:
          a swollen gone-to-seed 70-yr-old man wearing "PLAYGROUND HERO"
          a rotund grandmother with a cane wearing "I HEART CURVES"
          a 12-yr-old girl featuring Marilyn Monroe with thick, injected lips emblazoned with the Italian flag
          a  fairy-like wisp of a woman with half a heart covering each minuscule breast and the word "LOVE" between them.
- The pace of life that allows a three-year lawsuit over our hotel's driveway, where the
neighbor created a narrow turn in the rock wall to stop the flow of anything bigger than golf carts. Like the stroller trashed in the bush of a private garden, the wall will remain till we visit again.