Susan Orlins

For me, the dreading begins the Friday before, when my daughters, brimful with anticipation, arrive home with the crafts they have made at school. If history repeats itself, only two of the three gifts will be intact by Sunday, Mother's Day. What do teachers do about children who...

Who knew we were marathon women?

On an ordinary afternoon in 1998, Eliza, my sixteen-year-old daughter, plopped her backpack at my feet, waved a brochure so close it grazed my nose and declared, "I'm signing up for the Marine Corps Marathon. I'll be running with a group that raises money...

There's a lot to learn during a week in New York.

I learned I can go far north or south on dedicated bike lanes. And once a day someone grouses at me for wheeling crosstown on the sidewalk, not that I blame them.

But I do blame the guy who...

I'm drowning in junk, buried in boxes, suffocating with stuff. It doesn't surprise me that all these metaphors point to an untimely end.

There would be irony in getting snuffed out by my stuff, since one of my biggest worries happens to be that I'll drop dead and my children...

Season 8 of "The Family Vacation" has ended. Back from The Hamptons to their everyday lives are "Family Vacation" stars: the exes -- since 1998 -- Steve and Susan (yours truly) and their three twenty-something daughters.

Let's take a look back at Season 1, Summer of 2004.

"The whole family's...

At dress rehearsal with its stomach-turning surprises, like having to dance onto stage, I asked myself, What was I thinking when I agreed to this? At first it sounded like fun to be one of nine storytellers in a Valentine's Day show, Sucker for Love.

But I had not...

At first, it all seemed like a big adventure: Stepping into Hurricane Isabel at 1 a.m. with two pajama-clad teenage daughters and one dog in tow. Then, basking in mini-celebrity the following morning when neighbors gathered in small clusters to gasp at the damage. And finally moving in with my...

During the first half of my fifties, I visited my parents in Florida a few times a year for a few days at a time. Then a friend, whose parents had died when she was in her early twenties, convinced me I should visit my folks more often.

So...

I've been annoying ever since my three daughters (current ages 23, 24, 28) were old enough to tell me so. How annoying am I now? Let me count the ways.

Annoying by repeating myself:

"Mom, you're so annoying! You've told me that ten times!"

Annoying with too many questions:

Just...

At the cemetery, my sister and brother stand over our mother's coffin stricken with grief, their arms around each other. Dry-eyed, I step up next to them, completing our sibling trio. Yet we are two plus one, a duet and a solo. After standing there for a minute, unconnected --...

What if I meet a guy I like?

Monday: He gets up. I want to stay in bed but now I can't fall back to sleep. Or, I get up and he wants to sleep, so I can't turn on NPR.

But, ah, breakfast!

I make myself French...

It's hard for me to look at guys like Anthony Weiner without feeling more embarrassed for them than I ever feel for myself.

I doubt there are many men who don't have porn stashed away under the bed or in a closet somewhere. A woman I know...

I'm a high-functioning agnostic in that I do ask God for things. But in the same way that, as a kid, I was creeped out every time we had to sing "My Country 'tis of Thee," the line that goes "Land where our fathers died," the...

A crowd of gray-haired parents of single adults negotiates with one another along a stretch of Beijing's Zhongshan Park. These confabs occur on a strip of pavement lined on one side with rainbows of tulips and, on the other side, with the moat of the Forbidden City.

After my separation at age 52, I thought I'd simply revert to the lively dating life I'd had in my twenties. It didn't work that way. Most men my age seemed to have an eye only for women whose necks were long and smooth like a Chardonnay bottle.

• I thought...

I'm always striving to improve my memory. Below are some tips I use all the time to help me remember.

Remembering Grocery and Other Lists

• Remember the first letter of each item and make a sentence. For example, Milk, Eggs, Sugar, Lemons becomes My Eagle Sings Lullabies.
• Link the list:...

I'm always worried about time running out. Sometimes I think of my life as a giant hourglass, wishing I could plug up the opening to slow down the flow of those grains of sand.

Since I cannot slow down time, it gives me comfort to collect time-saving...

Last week, in the writing group I facilitate for homeless people, I suggested a pre-Thanksgiving exercise that got me thinking. Instead of the grade-school-type assignment of writing what you're thankful for I suggested we come up with some things we are not thankful for and see if we can find...

Nothing about divorce, especially with kids, is easy. It helped when I could find the inner resources to roll up my mental sleeves and look just three feet ahead of me, rather than allowing my mind to roam around the whole big picture and all that needed to be done.

• Ruminate less and it will help you de-stress. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy offers lessons anyone can apply.
• Prioritize your values. If you cut something out of your schedule, you'll have more space around the other things you do. You will feel less stressed and enjoy everything more. I've decided to cut...