I don’t remember not liking driving so much. I had my own car for about 20 years and was often the designated driver. I drove from my home in Chicago to school in Baltimore, and back, with my car. And I drove from my apartment to the downtown campus daily for my graduate work. My... Continue Reading →
Dinosaur days…
I’ve been living in the Los Angeles area for almost a decade now. To what end I didn’t know - it's too expensive - other than I live close to the beach, the airport and my brother. But then his daughter was born. Being an aunt who lives so close is the luckiest of situations.... Continue Reading →
Slump City
Slump City these days in my creative life. Even my painting has fallen out of its orbit. And the one little painting I sold got held up in the mail for over two weeks. I panicked, imagined an original work of art lying on a cold dirty floor or blowing like a discarded plastic bag... Continue Reading →
The view from afar
I enter a story in the Easy Reader contest for writing and photography each year. They usually print my stories about my adventures as honorable mention. This year I wasn't sure they would print it, as it's more of a personal essay (a shorter version of a post from a few months ago). But they... Continue Reading →
Lockdown artist
The proverbial bubble we in the South Bay live in got smaller during lockdown. For me, it was reduced to the size of my wannabe two bedroom apartment. I couldn’t go out for my walks on the beach. And a single friend remarked she was forgetting words as time went on without speaking out loud... Continue Reading →
The Lockdown Diaries: Week 12
by Janice Nigro The same title convention, but I think we’re no longer in lockdown in Los Angeles. Maybe we’ve morphed into something else. Lockdown plus? Now windows and doors are boarded up, and military helicopters fly over long after it’s time for bed. It’s as if the words people sling at each other in... Continue Reading →
The Lockdown Diaries: Week 11
by Janice Nigro This week beats all. I started this post with this sentence before all hell broke loose across the USA and now the world. More on this in a minute, as the air reverberates from the force of military helicopters flying over my apartment in Los Angeles county. I started with this sentence... Continue Reading →
The Lockdown Diaries: Week 10
by Janice Nigro Entering double digits for weeks in lockdown in California. I think we’re beginning to come out of it. That’s about all I’m going to say because life can go on somehow for those of us without a health crisis. Ten weeks in though and I can't shake the strange factor. Nothing is... Continue Reading →
The Lockdown Diaries: Week 9
by Janice Nigro Tomorrow at midnight, Week 9 under lockdown in California will be over and we will be heading into Week 10. If I really try, I can convince myself that I’ve been on a vacation. Maybe vacation isn’t the right word. Sabbatical? Hiatus? Artist-in-residence? (if I'm really generous to myself). Maybe these are... Continue Reading →
The Lockdown Diaries: Week 8
by Janice Nigro Two months under lockdown. Another month and it will be one quarter of the year. This is unbelievable. And yet, I’m worried that if it’s coming to the end, have I accomplished anything? The lockdown is one of those things like the seasons which we don’t have much of in California. Seasons... Continue Reading →