Author Archives: janishaag

The only problem with vacationing in Hawaii is that all your friends hate you for it. It’s impossible to write postcards (those old-fashioned 4×6 things with photos on them of impossibly beautiful, and sometimes faked, images) or emails or, yes, … Continue reading →

This is my annual Christmas poem, this year written to honor a new baby born Dec. 8, 2010. She’s the daughter of Christina and Mitch, Dick’s nephew and niece-in-law. (See my earlier post, “Welcome to the world, baby girl,” for … Continue reading →

Yesterday I visited my friend Judy at her home in East Sacramento. She greeted me at the door in a fuzzy winter hat. Her hair stuck out at odd angles from underneath it, and she immediately put her hand to … Continue reading →

It is significant only to me now, but 27 years ago today I married for the first and only time in my life. Clifford Ernest Polland married me on a cold but clear Saturday in a friend’s living room in … Continue reading →

One of the great joys of my life was my 29th birthday, which was when my sister Donna made me an aunt for the first time. Lauren Michelle Just was born six weeks early, and I like to think she … Continue reading →

If you read the previous post, you might be interested to know that after I wrote it, I walked down the street to my neighbor’s to pick up more downed gingko leaves, and I saw an older man out raking. … Continue reading →

I do this every fall now. I did it years before I started leading writing groups that required prompts. I’d go out in the neighborhood—sometimes even stopping by the side of the road if I saw lovely specimens—and load up … Continue reading →

I wrote this on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, at the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, on the first day of my Saturday fall writing workshop. We’d had a six-week summer hiatus, … Continue reading →

Ms. Coralee Hoffmaster Johnson of Cerritos, California—this is for you, darlin’.   I know that this week you had planned to find yourself on a small raft on the Colorado River with two of your closest women friends—Connie and Shirley. … Continue reading →

Evan Mendonsa is five years old, and he has just completed his third week of kindergarten. He is beyond excited about school. “It’s fun!” he enthuses with the big grin of a shiny new student. He can recognize a few … Continue reading →