My Husband Has No Olfactory Sensibility
Is there such a thing as the right day of the year to have all your rugs washed? Yes, there is. It’s when someone opens the backyard door for the dog to go out to do its first business of the day, and allows it back inside after being sprayed by a skunk. I must […]
Why I See Voting as a Duty
In 1964 the Brazilian Armed Forces, supported by the United States under Lyndon B. Johnson, staged a coup d’état and deposed Brazil’s democratically elected president, the leftist João Goulart from the Labor Party. Through political maneuvers, the Brazilian Congress—under extreme right majority—eased the military takeover. Although the US Army was ready to support the Brazilian […]
I’m Not a Pet Person. Why Do I Have a Dog?
Why do I have a dog? I’ve been asking myself more often than I used to; a few times a day actually. That isn’t good. It’s like asking yourself: Why am I married? Or, why is there so much hair in my shower drain? You know, those kinds of questions that make you feel uncomfortable. […]
Unexpected Challenges I Faced When Raising My Bilingual Kids
Unexpected Challenges I Faced When Raising My Bilingual Kids by Adriana T. Gomes As a writer I treasure the gift of communication. Maybe that was my problem when I had my first baby. I insisted on teaching her Portuguese and English simultaneously. It’s not easy. No wonder so many children of immigrants speak only English. The […]
Outlining x Quilting
Outlining versus Quilting One of my favorite authors, José Saramago, didn’t believe in Outlining. He had an idea and started writing, moving forward two pages a day, from beginning to end of a work. He didn’t like revisions either. In an interview to Paris Review from 1998 he stated that 90% of his complete manuscripts […]
The Girl Who Could See Far
Time has been a hard to get commodity for me since my kids were born. I talked about it already. My life style; moving frequently because of my husband’s career has made things trickier. Yet I wouldn’t trade the great life we made for ourselves as a family; it’s difficult, but so enriching. We moved […]
More Time
Not time, more of it. It’s been scarce since I became a mother. Worst, it is scornful now. If I’m enjoying myself, it runs away. If I’m dreading the moment, it stays longer, it gives itself “more” to me. It allows me to bask in sorrow. Not consciously, I stumbled on the solution, skepticism. A […]
Forgive me Muse for I have sinned
Forgive me Muse for I have sinned. I haven’t committed a word to paper in a long time. Please pardon my many moments of stillness as your spark shined bright and I wouldn’t make time to explore the possibilities. Please pardon those moments I reached for a pen and decided to grab a cereal bar, […]
My best moment of 2012 was outweighed by the worst one, by far.
The year is coming to an end, and lists of 2012 “best” and “worst” everything dominate news papers and magazine covers in most countries of the world. Retrospectives of the nearly finished year share the lists of topics of TV variety shows with resolutions for the new year. To me, the best thing that happened […]