GM's Blog

I finished telling the story, just as I had told it for the past thirty years; but this time my cousin looked at me and said, “we were taking bets on whether you would tell that story. You always do, so you get the rubber duck.” (more…)

Leaving home and getting my own apartment was something that I couldn’t wait to do…  but it was also pretty scary.  I left home at eighteen and began - sometimes successfully and sometimes not - to create my own “home” in the various apartments that I occupied over the years.

In those early years, turning my living environment into my home meant doing some of the things that my Mom had done.

In my early 20’s my roommate and I took a summer road trip to the Okanagan Valley. At the time it took six hours (now shorter because of the Coquihalla) and took us to the land of Ogopogo and acres of orchards.

Orchards meant fruit; that year we arrived for peach season. On the way back to Vancouver we stopped at a stand and although we were only going to buy a few peaches, we ended up (more…)

Just around the time I turned fifty I realized that there was no hiding the fact that I needed to lose weight. Not just 10lbs, but, according to the AMA, 100 lbs would have been the appropriate number. The task seemed daunting but I set my course and over eight months I lost 80 lbs. It took determination and one mindedness and at the end I felt full with success. (Yes - the pun was intended)

That was four years ago, and although I (more…)

Recently I made an apple almond cheesecake.  It was a recipe that my aunt had sent in a recent note. “Oma’s (Grandmother’s) favorite”, it had said at the top.  Technically she isn’t the grandmother to my kids.  She is my aunt, my godmother and someone who took these titles seriously enough to be there for me when I really needed someone, and when it might not have been so convenient or comfortable for her to take me into her family.  The cake was (more…)

My uncle is writing his memoirs.  He is in his very young eighties and figures he has ten more years to get this done. He says he is writing them for his kids, and by that he means, not only his kids but also me and my kids and his grand-kids, but mostly (more…)

I am in the business of hospitality. When I got my first hotel job I had been a hairdresser for 7 years. It was something that I was very good at, not only because I could cut hair well but also because I am the type of person to whom people felt comfortable telling their stories. This seemed (more…)

I have been living in California so long that I very often forget that people from other parts of North America easily chuckle and think, “those crazy Californians”.  Crazy, different, fore-thinking, because we are always doing things, for lack of a better word, “Organically”. In fact I think I have, more than once, used the fact that I live in California to explain away my crazy thinking or behavior. Which, of course, made those (more…)

When I was nine I remember going with my family to the airport in Vancouver, B.C., the town in which I grew up. This trip included my Aunt Frieda, my cousin Herb, my parents and myself. We were there to pick up my Oma (grandmother) who was flying in from Germany.  Back then it was a very long flight, which I think included a layover in Iceland or Greenland, because those propeller planes could not fly the entire route without stopping to refuel. (more…)

Do you ever wonder about Victoria’s secret? Maybe it is not such a secret at all, but just this morning I pondered that question. (more…)

On the day the scaffolding was being taken down after four weeks of painting the El Camino facing wall of the Stanford Terrace Inn, I stood watching at the entrance of Starbucks.(Ed: Here’s a video of the mural right here: http://www.vipepower.com/Company/3CNO2X04X3WK)

The Stanford Terrace Inn is located on Stanford Avenue just off (more…)