August in Buffalo: It was sticky, and we craved ice cream.

You can only hear if you’re willing to listen — Like most non-billionaires, I already had negative feelings associated with Tax Day. Then in 2010, my Dad died in the ICU on April 14, a few short hours after his doctor told my brother that he’d probably pull through — because “he’s a fighter.” Dad loved kids, had a wicked…

The worst decision I ever made — I asked my Mother once what regrets she had about her life. She said she only had regrets about things she didn’t do, not the things she did. I wish I could say the same. My two biggest regrets are evenly divided between a decision I consciously made to take…

It’s true. Seniors do talk about their ailments too much. But last week, I knew that I’d officially joined the Medicare crowd. How? I got more birthday greetings from health care providers than from friends: my physical therapist, my GI doctor, my optometrist, and my dentist. The latter was kind…

A loose timeline of aha moments in self-awareness — We all live through a lot of red-letter “first days,” from kindergarten to college graduation, marriage, kids, and — if we’re lucky! — retirement. Sometimes, though, it’s the smaller moments that turn out to be the most telling of who we are. Here’s a few of mine. When I actually…

I’ll probably see the movie, but it won’t be for nostalgia — I was a lousy girl of the 1960s. Zero interest in make-up or horses. No interest in dolls. I lived for Playskool blocks and then Legos. I could build imaginary cities all day long. Every time Mom bought me a doll, hoping that this year I’d become “normal”? It went…

Even in retirement, I keep noticing UX problems that I wish I could fix. — Now that I’m no longer spending 40+ hours a week considering usability and user experience issues for PBS LearningMedia and PBS KIDS for Parents, I have a lot of mental bandwidth free to notice usability and UX issues in daily life — from confusing websites and frustrating UI to physical…

The end of August often reminds me of the excitement I felt the years that steelworker Dad was available to go shopping for new school…

Let’s hope that guidance counseling has improved since 1975. — About 10 years ago, I paid for sessions with a career counselor/coach, trying to figure out how to escape from a toxic workplace and identify a better path. I got a set of occupational skills and aptitudes assessment tests, tools that were totally new to me, at age 55. Recently…