I haven’t mentioned how much fun I’m having volunteering as the publicity consultant for Aloha Community Library.  How our local 20 foot tall icon, Harvey the Giant Rabbit, will soon be getting his own super-sized Aloha library card for everyone to see.  And how I’m helping to launch a new speaker series so that the library can step forward as a lively meeting place for all of Aloha. It takes a variety of steps in the right direction to get things going  — But That’s Not What Happened today when I set out to join the Aloha Business Association, planning to meet with the...

I have very few credentials to help me launch an imaginary career as a movie critic.  But if I ever landed an interview, I’d say a little about my high school newspaper profile about the just-emerging  Joni Mitchell, after hearing “Clouds”for the first time — how I once chatted with Dustin Hoffman outside the stage door after watching “Jimmy Shine,” and how I sat not more than 20 feet away from Richard Burton when he dazzled us in “Equus. ” And if my interviewer was still paying attention, I’d go on and on about the time I shook hands with...

My husband was sure that Jim, the appliance serviceman dispatched for our annual washer/dryer check-up, would have nothing to say about detergent preferences. Our tete a tete in the laundry room, he tried to convince me, would simply confirm that our front-loading high efficiency machines were meeting industry standards.   I raced ahead to our laundry room to line up the questionable detergent boxes. And as I waited for Jim, I wondered whether our fluffy towels and dirty gym clothes were sometimes at odds in the suds.  I’d ask him about the upper range of full loads, too —  if he stayed...

I’m married to a master negotiator. He was born with the will to make things happen. He even makes stuck wheels turn his way.  I’m guessing it has something to do with his Type B blood, instant know-how passed through ancestors who refused to give in.  Not me.  I prefer to find things hidden under mossy stones. I let my eyes lead and turn up my ears when something makes them glow.  True, I lit up when Dustin Hoffman was asked at the Golden Globes about who he’d most like to spend time with that night and he inched closer to his wife of so many years, and declared:...

I brought back a simple beaded necklace from Kona for my chief of staff, Eleanor.  Hard to find a more lovable and diligent bear in the world.  She sits on the beautiful wooden chair that Myles made years ago, and is in charge of seeing that my cell phone is properly charged and ready to go. Her communication skills melt my heart. And I have another bear called Eleanor, who I discovered while shopping for kitchen accessories.  She’s a traveling bear and sits right behind the driver’s seat, always strapped in, and ever-ready to provide loving company for my back seat passengers. ...