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If moving, there is one dictum to keep in mind: change is inevitable, and it can be unsettling at first. Your routines—grocery shopping, going to a hair salon, finding a pharmacy and even shopping where you can buy books, gifts and cards—will be upended. Grocery stores are at the top of our list of most important places to visit. For some, it’s a daily shop, European style, carting your little wire grocery cart to pick up a few staples or esoteric spices or ingredients if a novel meal ends up on your repertoire. The former owner of fabulous Lutece in Manhattan,...

How do we use our time? Each of us has a different internal metronome that ticks a little faster or slower than other people’s does. For procrastinators, getting a read on time has never been easy. Some get right on a project or make a quick decision and move on. Some debate a little, and then there are the procrastinators who chew on their thoughts, then wait until the last minute to complete a project or make a decision. This reasoning can be paralyzing, and there are consequences.  But many keep doing so because they almost always get whatever they need...

We hem, we haw, we convince ourselves not to, but sometimes we debate and then pounce and buy something that turns out to be either a reckless impulse purchase—oops!--or extra-special wonderful such as long hoped-for trip, 100 scratch-off lottery tickets with one a winner or pricy season tickets to the opera where we can chill and block out what’s going on in the world around us.   Despite the angst we might experience in making a bad decision, a good decision is a gift. Here is our list of the “best decisions we’ve made.” What’s yours? **************************************************BarbaraPurchase of Jeni’s ice cream,...

A new internist suggested to one of us after studying recent lab results that we had, maybe, 10 good years left if we’re lucky. We thought we weren’t due to expire, literally, for at least another 15 or even 20 years!  Expiration dates confront us every day. At the grocery store, we check the expiration dates before buying almost any item. An apple might feel mushy, so you ask, “How long has this been sitting here?” Expired. Move on. Same with prepared foods, a pastry or loaf of bread. Is it fresh or has its day of freshness expired? Makeup,...

They’re not a pair of lost mittens or one sock that disappeared in the dryer that can be replaced or maybe even found. Friends are different. They represent far more--perhaps a long history we shared or a strong relationship over a shorter timeline.  Regardless of the length of the friendship, they were part of our lives and in our heads and thoughts for some period of time. We probably confided some facts or emotions, told something about ourselves or our family and asked about them and their crew, possibly each time we got together. We most likely traded calls, emails...