About55

Chanel. Hermes. Dior.  For the first time, I joined my daughter, who recently moved her business operation to the Los Angeles area, in walking up and down Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, the boulevard whose […]

This economy has produced some strange bedfellows in my life. No, not the kinds of bedfellows that cause the juices to stir. Rather, they are the kinds that test me at every turn as to what expenses are […]

As the mother of a young woman who has defied all the odds — still in her 20s and runs a successful company, no college degree — all during  a lousy economy — I am often asked if I could tell from the time […]

It happens to the best of us. Days go by and you realize you have wasted precious time putting off doing what you know in your gut you should be doing.   Not only that — you know you are eminently capable of […]

I write all kinds of columns and blogs. Many of them are not for financial gain, but for the sheer love of writing and the need to express something deep inside me. As summer begins in earnest and the sun […]

Another Fathers’ day has come and gone. For some of us, it can bring an empty feeling if we have already lost the man who represented so many simply human things in our lives. My dad was one of those men whose […]

Okay, I’ll admit it. Writing is how I got through college, landed jobs I probably didn’t deserve (or want), won friends and influenced people. A blank piece of paper or a computer screen unadorned by the […]

It was a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.

Last year, my first full year of singing in a large, well-known regional choral group, I couldn’t wait for performance time, when our group of practiced, […]

When my old country cousin, Dimitris, came for his first visit to our northern California home last year, it was indeed a hastily planned trip. He and I had recently chatted on Facebook, catching up on one […]

I don’t want a lot. My weight loss goals are not even that lofty.

Now rapidly approaching my sixth decade (galloping, actually), I realize that becoming fashionably slender might look great on me from the […]

I’ve been asking that question for a while.  The idea of merely holding poses and stretching limbs did not constitute a form of exercise in my addle-brained estimation. But my yoga-loving daughter and my […]

It’s a curiosity.  When people hear that I feel ill at ease at business networking events, those who know and love me are perplexed. My having been a public speaker and professional trainer, capable of addressing […]

Always hesitant to write about politics or politicians, I take a great leap airing my frustrations in a blog. Americans have been so polarized for so long that it is always safest to avoid any mention of the […]

So the day has finally come.  If it’s true that today is a “milestone” birthday for me, then it means one of two things: I can either assign too much meaning to it or act as if it were no big deal. Either, I […]

There are real trips (the kind you board a ship or a plane for) and there are head-trips.  I am in the process of preparing for one while experiencing the other for our upcoming trip to Greece, where my other […]

Even though many Greek-Americans like myself come to Greece more frequently than the average tourist, our memories become clouded in between trips, making the comforts of daily life in the U.S. something we […]

“Hey listen to this! The entire work force of the state of Virginia had to have ‘solitaire’ removed from their computers because they hadn’t done any work in six weeks. “  ~ line from the movie You’ve Got […]