Inside Dolphin 406 – How a Luxury Cruise turned into a Covid-19 Prison for a Scottsdale Medical Couple
When Sommer and Steve Gunia left Arizona on January 16 and traveled across the world to Tokyo to board the fated Diamond Princess cruise on January 20, they had never even heard of the Novel Coronavirus that was already sweeping across China. Sommer is a doctor (and...
How Do You Do Spring Cleaning During a Pandemic?
5 Timeless Tips to Refresh and Renew Your Home for Spring, plus a bonus 2020 quarantine tip. Spring Break has been extended indefinitely, and we are suddenly spending a lot more time at home. Perfect time to tackle all those home improvement projects we never have...
I’m Both a Jew and a Christian, and Holy Week is Hard…Especially Right Now
I awake in the middle of the night with a tightness in my belly, a heaviness in my chest. I have been working on identifying negative emotions and sitting with them for a while, rather than simply trying to stuff them or numb them. I ask my body what's wrong, why do I...
The Wild Ride of the Coronavirus Scare…and What if We Actually do Have it?
My, how life can change in a week! Last week I posted an article about how we were still going to Disneyland despite my recent surgery and the Coronavirus, which at the time, was just shy of an official pandemic. We had a wonderful trip and made fabulous memories,...
Why We’re Still Going to Disneyland for Spring Break Despite the Coronavirus
And the steps we’ll take to keep our family safe in the Magic Kingdom Undeterred by worldwide panic over the Covid-19 Coronavirus, we don’t have any plans to curtail our first family trip to Disneyland next week. Unless Disney shuts down the park or the CDC prohibits...
Ode to My Breasts, a Eulogy and a Celebration of Life
The Breast is Yet to Come: My Journey Through Breast Cancer, Treatment and Reconstruction Watching the new Little Women movie in the theater several weeks ago, I was struck by the fact that I never really grieved the loss of my breasts. Or celebrated their life. Since...
A Narrow Escape: From Street Life, Abuse and Sex Trafficking to Family Life in the Suburbs
This article was originally published a few years ago in Las Sendas Life Magazine, a local magazine for our neighborhood in Northeast Mesa, AZ. At the time, I knew it deserved a much larger audience, but life flies by and my blog was nothing more than a half-baked...
Why Pink Makes Me Feel Strong
Today is World Cancer Day Recently a friend posted about how she’s not a fan of the whole colors for causes thing, but even though I deeply respect her feelings, I don’t agree... She said that every time she sees purple, she feels distress because it reminds her of...
The Top 25 Ideas Running Through my Jam-Packed Brain
I’ve been relatively quiet on social media the past few months and a few people have reached out to make sure everything is OK. It wasn’t this big, planned out thing, nor was it a social media fast. I didn’t disconnect entirely, just became a little less vocal about...
Won’t You Let Me In?
I have never been a poet. My thoughts come out in paragraphs, not alliterations, allusions, anaphoras and assonance. But I too prefer writing to speaking. The time it takes to type slows and smooths the jumbled edges of my feelings. On the outside I’m scattered...