Two weeks ago the husband of my friend Cindy, Andy Wierzba, died of a heart attack. Andy is my third married friend to die young and suddenly, and I haven’t had words to write about this for two weeks. I’ve been tiptoeing around the computer, wanting to say something but at a loss for words. [...]

So I got a new haircut, and it is exactly what I wanted, a no-do-do. What I mean by that is that this haircut looks exactly the same when I roll out of bed in the morning as it does after I’ve showered. I don’t dry, curl or agonize any more. No product, no hassle. [...]

So it is the year of the cicada, which was initially a pretty creepy concept to me. Apparently the cicadas go in 17 year cycles, and when they come, they bring all their friends and relatives and they party in every tree in the Chicago suburbs. They’re so noisy that you can barely think when [...]

This just in: John passed the German exam! This past year, our family theme song was “I fought the German exam, and the exam won.” Now we’ll have to find a new soundtrack. CHEERS!

“I’ve been thinking about existence lately. In fact, I have been so full of admiration for existence that I have hardly been able to enjoy it properly . . . I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know [...]