Я – хронический дилетант.
Говорю и пишу на чужом языке с акцентом и нервами. Говорю на родном языке с запинкой. Continue reading “Dilettante, Polymath”
Category Unprompted
Original writing, unassigned, unprompted
Nola
Last night, on my way to a milonga, I received a message from Kathy:
“I don’t know if you saw the post by <so and so> that Nola passed away this morning. We don’t know details but I know you were good friends and you were her mentor.”
I didn’t know that. I knew that Nola was retired, so she must have been older than she appeared and lived, but no, I didn’t see that, didn’t see that coming. She was 67.
Years ago Nola worked as a math teacher somewhere on the East Coast. Continue reading “Nola”
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Написано в третью субботу октября 2013 года
1948 или 1947 год. Моя бабушка в твоем возрасте, пройдя войну, потеряв отца, беременная дочкой Тамарой, которая скоро умрет. С тетей Аней на руках. Со светом и любовью на следующие 63 года и, через меня, после.
Yulia. Travel. Jewels.
Adopted from a speech given in 2011 at my home club
What’s so precious about travel that we don’t mind spending lots of money, hauling heavy bags, getting hassled at airports, sleeping in strange beds? In 2010, I was to travel to the UK for work the week after Thanksgiving. Continue reading “Yulia. Travel. Jewels.”
The Beginning of Tango
It all began when Bill went to Iraq. Bill was tall, young, smart, handsome, recently single, and down-to-earth – for a software engineer anyway. I don’t recall Bill ever going to those video game parties the other guys were so fond of.
At Karen’s ballroom dance class in College Park, a girl introduced herself to Bill: “My name is Honey. As something sweet.” Bill responded: Continue reading “The Beginning of Tango”
Love letters understated 