For the past few days, my mother has been calling me with a slight alarm in her voice. “Laurie, I was looking at my calendar and I see that you’re going to Scotland on August 7th and then I looked and you don’t come back until the 25th. Is that true?” “Yes, Mom, I’m going to teach a writing retreat in Scotland. And first, I’m going to Edinburgh for the theatre festival.” “I had no idea,” she replied, although of course we’ve been talking about my upcoming trip for months. “Karyn will be here,” I reassured her. “And Lizzy is home now. And Darren (my brother—her son) lives in California now. He’ll come down and visit you.” “It’s not that I don’t want you to go. It’s just a long time without you here. I’m going to miss you.” “I’m going to miss you, too.” The next day: the ... [Continue Reading]

It’s the morning of my departure. Saying goodbye to Mom is the last thing on my list. I drive over to Sunshine Villa and let myself in her room. She’s sitting, as she usually is, on the flowered couch, newspapers scattered on the table before her. I clear off a space and sit beside her. I scootch over and take her hand. “When are you leaving?” “In an hour.” “You mean, right now? TODAY?” “Yeah, I’m leaving right after I leave here.” “How long will you be gone?” “Two-and-a-half weeks.” “Ohh…..” A wave of unhappy concern flashes across her face. “Darren is coming to see you this weekend and Karyn will come visit you. Lizzy will be around. You’ll be okay, Mom.” “It’s not that I can’t manage on my own. But I’m used to having you around. I’m used to talking to you. We ... [Continue Reading]

Today, I decided to catalogue the world’s greatest salads. I hadn’t intended to do that, but after the salad I had today in the London Heathrow airport, I felt compelled to start a list. Today’s salad, at a large sprawling restaurant called Giraffe, was called the Super Healthy Veggie and Oregano Feta Salad. It included marinated feta, broccoli, sugar snap peas, alfalfa, borlotti beans, avocado, bulgar wheat, toasted seeds, rocket, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach in an herby salsa verde dressing. It clocked in at 676 calories (a factoid on the menu) and cost just under 10 pounds. Eating it gave me a whole new lease on life after a night of cramped international travel in cattle class, crammed up against the window. I don’t know if you can tell by looking how fantastic it was, but you ... [Continue Reading]

So far, 24 hours into my visit, Edinburgh feels like a teeming young person’s city. I don’t know if all the young people we see on the street are locals out for the evening or tourists from all over the world who have arrived for the theater festival. Last night we struck out around nine o’clock to explore and to find something to eat. We were armed only with a shitty tourist map and tried to pick our way to the local theatre district. We found ourselves a great local pub, The Fiddler’s Arm, just underneath Edinburgh Castle. It was just the kind of place I’d hoped for: wood walls, big wood tables, a young woman singing folk songs, a young female bartender topping off strong dark draft beers, and great pub food: in our case, beef cooked in stout with a pastry top, excellent French ... [Continue Reading]