Slice of Life

    • My octopus teacher

      I’m not a very strong swimmer, so being out in the ocean is always a little scary for me. When we go snorkeling, I tend to stay pretty close to shore and my breathing isn’t as relaxed as it should be. But I brave it–partly because I’m usually with my…

    • Spam

      I was getting ready to write a post about SPAM, the canned meat, and I wanted to write a clever sentence bemoaning the fact that this delicious food has the same name as the hated junk email that clutters our inboxes when I learned this: Spam is literally named after…

    • Arenaphobia

      According to my husband, arenaphobia is the fear of sand. I’ve heard him use it many times over the years and never questioned it. Something in me decided to question it this week. He said it came from the Spanish word for sand, arena, plus phobia. I was dubious so…

    • My kryptonite

      My kryptonite

      Donuts. I cannot say no to a good donut. For our wedding (the second for both of us) we had mini-donuts instead of cake. I’ve organized two donut crawls with scoring sheets and everything. That’s me with scoring pen in one hand, donut in the other, and crumbs all over…

    • Ten Top-Three Lists

      Inspired by WOWilkinson‘s post to make my own ten lists of top 3s. Things to do at the beach• paddle board• boogie board• read Things to bake• chocolate chip cookies• LAUSD coffee cake• berry cobbler Taco spots• Guerrilla tacos• La Taqueria Brand• Sonoratown Sitcoms• The Golden Girls• Parks and Rec…

    • Brother, come in

      Writing about traveling yesterday reminded me of traveling with my brother… Years ago, in the mid-2000s, my brother generously took me on a trip to Barcelona. For some reason that I can’t remember now, we had to take separate flights both into and out of Spain. Since we didn’t have…

    • Address unknown

      I came across this fantastic resource from educator @MarcusLuther6 while scrolling on X last night. (Whenever I think I should just delete the app, something like this will pop up and I’ll stay on it another day.) I thought I’d give this idea a go for today’s slice. Pre-flight, the…

    • Cómo se dice…

      Snacks? One of the best parts of living in Southern California is the complex tapestry of cultures and ethnicities that we get to interact with daily. At the first school I worked at there were Spanish-speaking teachers from Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and El Salvador. I loved listening to their conversations…

    • The big C

      When my youngest sister was a first-year med student, she said to me, “We’re all going to die of cancer.” Well, that was a dire prediction and maybe a bit dramatic, I thought at the time. But in just this last year, cancer has affected so many people in my…

    • No hablo español

      One of the biggest regrets I’ve had in life is not taking Spanish as a foreign language. When it came time to choose a foreign language to study in high school, I chose French. My stepmom suggested I study Mandarin or Spanish, but I refused. Mandarin would be too difficult.…