Tag Archives: travel

Leaving

Posted on April 8, 2022 by advicefrommarta

The other day my dentist asked me if I had plans for the summer. I told him I’d be driving my daughter to college in upstate New York, by myself. He told me that his daughter went to college in … Continue reading →

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Mr. Peabody’s Coal Train

Posted on December 12, 2021 by advicefrommarta

It’s Friday night, and my son is taking the El to a high school basketball game. It is “the big game” with their “cross-town rivals.” The trash talk online is brutal. He is wearing his school colors, a bright orange … Continue reading →

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Roadside Attraction

Posted on August 8, 2021 by advicefrommarta

On the second to last day of our trip we woke up, as we often do, in a Springhill Suites. This one was near the Buffalo airport. My husband is obsessed with his Mariott points and so, although we both … Continue reading →

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The Smell of Creosote

Posted on August 26, 2020 by advicefrommarta

There was a storm the other day, just a little thunder, wind, and rain here, but farther to the north, it was a storm. When I went outside the next morning it smelled like creosote. More precisely, it smelled like … Continue reading →

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My Horror Movie

Posted on August 6, 2018 by advicefrommarta

My husband’s family has a cabin deep in the woods of Northern Michigan. So deep in the woods that the first time he took me and turned from a dirt road into a random, unmarked clump of trees and up … Continue reading →

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Paddle to the Sea Park!

Posted on August 10, 2015 by advicefrommarta

My son’s favorite book is “Paddle to the Sea.” It’s not really “about” anything as much as it is the travelogue of a toy carving of a wooden canoe with an Indian in it. It was given to my son … Continue reading →

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Cars and Goodbyes

Posted on October 30, 2014 by advicefrommarta

In 1999 I was 30 years old. I was thin, single, and much more professionally successful than anyone with a MA in literature ever thinks she will be. I had been driving a 1977 Nissan Sentra and one winter day, … Continue reading →

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Watching TV in Different Time Zones

Posted on July 7, 2014 by advicefrommarta

I remember being sent an email with a list of examples of bad similes from high school papers. I felt one was unfairly included, “It was like when you’re in a different city and all the same TV shows are … Continue reading →

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Change of Address

Posted on July 5, 2014 by advicefrommarta

Like most people, I don’t spend a lot of time at the post office. Years ago, when I ran a small hotel in the middle of nowhere, I went there weekly to mail a package of paperwork to the owner’s … Continue reading →

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