The Lens: As if times weren’t trying enough, we had a death in the family. My sister-in-law’s long-time boyfriend passed away. While they weren’t married or living together, he had been a part of our family for well more than…
The Monkey On My Back
The Lens: A couple of months ago, my cousin sent out a group email. Her sister had a significant birthday coming up and she wanted to do something special. With a party out of the question, she was reaching out…
The “Dear Abby Test”
The Lens: Not long ago, my husband and I started watching “Last Tango in Halifax.” If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is about two people in their 70s who find each other after roughly 60 years. They had…
Off the Rails
The Lens: When you think things just can’t get any worse or weirder, they do. Let’s see, first we are struck by a pandemic. Then, civil unrest brought on by another racially based tragedy. Then, an election in an unequivocally…
When Day Was Night
The Lens: The above picture was taken at 11:00a.m. in San Francisco on September 9, 2020. There were no filters used, no Photoshopping. This very accurate image is what the camera on my phone captured. I woke up that morning…
A Summer Storm
The Lens: My windows (and, maybe more significantly, my shades) were all open as we were in the middle of a heat wave – atypical weather for San Francisco. I woke up somewhere around 3:30am. A bright flash, then another.…
The Evacuation
The Lens: We were living in San Bruno when, one night at dinner, the ground began to tremble accompanied by a growing roar. We were having an early dinner so we could get to my son’s back-to-school night. Instead we…
The Work from Home Meeting
The Lens: I am about my wits end with COVID. On this morning, I had a 9:00am “meeting” with my principal. (I put meeting in quotes because meetings are nothing like they used to be roughly 5 months ago.) I…