I’ve read a lot in recent years about the benefits of being mindful. This is the process of concentrating on and enjoying one thing at a time and is the exact opposite of my usual multi-tasking. I have been trying to employ mindfulness since it’s supposed to relieve stress and actually make …
Have you been busy cleaning out closets and reorganizing your stuff? It seems like one byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people found themselves with plenty of time on their hands, stuck at home either not able to work or not able to go anywhere. I’m reading and hearing about everyo…
We’ve finally started summer and I’m already tired of yard work.
Well, we’re in the “green phase” now in most of Southwestern Pennsylvania after months of a lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the stay at home order still in place, let’s just say we’re all living in a world where “casual Friday” has morphed into “yoga pants on days that end in Y.”
We’re halfway through the month of April and that means we have about two weeks left on the current stay-at-home directives because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s April Fool’s Day and it certainly feels as if the world is playing a cruel joke on all of us.
Last month, we had a stretch of five 50-plus degree days and three straight days without any precipitation. That may not sound like anything special, but it marked the first time this year we went longer than two days without rain or snow. Two of those three days were sunny with barely a clo…
There we were spending a perfectly quiet Valentine’s Day in Washington, D.C. My boyfriend’s enormous group of colleagues had checked out after their work conference and we went upstairs to change for dinner. While we were changing, a dramatic transformation was afoot in the hotel lobby. We h…
It was the day after the big game and my co-workers still looked a little tired from Super Bowl LIV festivities the night before.
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you may recall that I recently wrote about riding the bus to work in downtown Pittsburgh some days rather than fighting traffic on the parkway. Not only is this a less stressful commute, it also saves me time and money and gives me about a half-hour…
No, I’m not talking about marijuana, although it is legal in Colorado, and it’s everywhere. I mean everywhere. As soon as you leave the airport, you start seeing billboards and signs advertising dispensaries and all sorts of CBD and marijuana products and vendors. I had no interest in any of…
As I write this, the sun is shining and the temperature is soaring into the upper 50s, which is pretty mild for late November.
How long is your commute to and from work? Or do you even have one anymore?
It’s that time of year when leaves have reached their peak golden and rust colors and are beginning to fall, and kids everywhere are excited to put on their Halloween costumes and go do to door for trick-or-treating. I’m prepared with my giant bag of candy which I will try to hand out rather…
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and not just because of the warm, mainly dry weather, lower humidity and colorful foliage.
Columnist Kristin Emery buys a new car that both amazes and confuses her.
As I write this, Hurricane Dorian is churning just north of the Bahamas after devastating the Abaco Islands. My heart breaks as I see the footage of 20 feet of storm surge overwhelming cars, homes and lives.
I am constantly amazed at how many people are on the highway and how much traffic there is everywhere you go nowadays.
Warm summertime temperatures motivate me to get outside and take a daily walk (most of the time). Sometimes I take my smartphone with me to play some music to enjoy through my earbuds and to keep me going. To those of you who are also products of the 1980s, this is the equivalent of those gu…
Is it just me or did I somehow miss the fact that I moved to the tropical rainforest this year? The heat and humidity over the past week were so tropical that you could almost cut the mugginess with a knife.
I like driving. I realized this the other day while I was driving to work for an early morning weather shift and practically no one else was on the highway. That’s rare these days since the roads are more packed than ever, even though they keep building more and more lanes.
Summer has finally officially arrived, and it ushered in some sunshine over the weekend. With all of the rain we experienced during the early part of June, I hadn’t gotten around to doing much yard work in the way of cleaning out flower beds, mulching and weeding. That all changed around two…
Are you a collector? I know plenty of folks who are collectors, and my mom was a big collector. Part of being a collector is the fun of acquiring pieces for your collection or in having someone give you a certain piece as a gift. It’s great fun seeing something that you know a loved one woul…
Since we just marked Memorial Day, I was remembering that old clothing fashion rule that you only wear white shoes or carry a white handbag between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Remember that? Whatever happened to that rule? Then again, whatever happened to white shoes?
Spring cleaning got started a little late at my house, but at least it’s done. After going through boxes and plastic totes of belongings that used to be in storage, I can proudly say that my entire house is organized and “redd out.” Well, don’t go into the attic – that’s a project I’ll tackl…
I wrote a column a while ago about how much time and effort we women put into our appearance. Between makeup, skincare, hair styling, nail polish, jewelry and matching shoes and belts among other things ... it’s exhausting.
You’ve probably seen those tiny houses on television, but could you actually live in one?
Each spring, it occurs to me just a little too late that I should have made plans to spend some time at spring training soaking in the sun and watching the Pirates play baseball in Bradenton, Fla.
I heard that familiar sound the other morning just after waking up, and it wasn’t the birds chirping or the sound of the school bus on its usual route.
Well, it finally happened. For decades, I thanked my lucky stars that I had 20/20 vision and didn’t have to endure the same torture as my friends and family did wearing contacts lenses or any kind of glasses. Father time finally caught up with me a few years ago when middle age presbyopia se…
When I was growing up, there were several things that were annual summer traditions in our family: a trip to the Jersey Shore, spending long days at the local pool, playing baseball and softball at Washington Park and taking part in the Washington Community Theater summer musical production.
You may have read a recent health and medical article I wrote that appeared in last Saturday’s Observer-Reporter about the results of a new study showing the pros and cons of getting enough, too little or too much sleep.
As we slog through winter, my skin keeps getting drier and drier. Ladies, you know what I mean, right? Despite the humidifier on the furnace, thicker face and body creams and even moisturizing botanical oil, the flaky skin always resurfaces this time of year. I just returned from a ski trip …
This wild roller coaster of temperature swings that we’ve been on the past two weeks has everyone so confused about the weather that they don’t know if they should fire up the snow blower or throw on a T-shirt and sunglasses and wash their cars.
Every time I bend at the waist or reach above my head this week, I am cursing the creators of wallpaper. Who in the world invented this stuff, anyway?
It’s a new year, and since we’re already one week in and I haven’t exercised once, that working out resolution isn’t going so well. But today is a new day and there’s no reason to give up yet, right? My New Year’s resolutions in recent years have been more introspective and have included goa…
Let's all hope that Mother Nature's New Year's resolution is to turn off the faucet around here.
They finally found me. There, in my mailbox, was the official notice that I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. No one really needed to inform me of that, but in my mind I’m still eternally 25 years old. Aren’t we all? It’s just my right knee that tells me otherwise after too many decades of sk…
Note to self: Don’t book your next diving excursion right after binge-watching an entire DVR full of “Shark Week” specials. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what I need to do every year. I booked my latest trip to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico at the same time I was glued to the television…
I picked up a couple of bags of Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters the other day while browsing the Halloween aisles of a local store. Yes, there was an entire section of Halloween candy, costumes and decorations, and we even have entire Halloween stores pop up temporarily just for the oc…
What are you wearing right now? That’s not meant to be a creepy question, because you may be in your pajamas if it’s first thing in the morning. The real question is whether those pajamas are summer shorties or fall flannels. While you may have put away your flip-flops for the season, the we…
It was a very busy week for me, and I was doing my best to meet every deadline for my editors, wake up before the crack of dawn to do the early morning weather broadcasts and still keep on top of chores around the house, such as mowing the lawn and doing laundry while trying not to find excu…
We’re at the peak of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season and even though we don’t live near the ocean, we are still experiencing the effects of tropical systems thanks to moisture from both Hurricanes Gordon and Florence making its way inland across our area.
It’s football season, and we kicked it off by traveling to Charlotte, N.C., where my WVU Mountaineers played Tennessee. That area has huge alumni populations for both schools and provided close proximity for both fan bases. The folks at the stadium were prepared for the enormous crowd, but I…
A funny thing happened in the fitting room of a clothing store the other day, and it’s too funny not to share. I was trying on sale dresses when I heard voices next to me. Women often shop together and sometimes share a fitting room. I have not, however, seen a man share a fitting room with …
It’s summer, and that means the farmers markets are in full swing. So I was surprised recently when I read an article about the fear that farmers markets have maxed out and are selling less than they used to.
I turned on the television Sunday morning and was riveted, as I’m sure many of you also were, by watching the British Open.
There I was, surfing the television channels or watching those shows I love about buying vacation homes on some Caribbean island when the commercial break hit. Some ad for a company selling furniture and home furnishings online was first followed by an ad for another company touting its webs…
I’ve pulled some real winners when it comes to stupid mistakes in my life. There are the daily missteps first thing in the morning such as pouring orange juice rather than milk on my cereal or starting to apply my pink lip liner only to realize I’m holding a black eyeliner pencil in my hand.
Memorial Day has come and gone, and though it’s officially still spring, it sure feels like summer. It seems we went from a never-ending winter straight to blazing hot temperatures and just skipped right over spring this year.
Memorial Day weekend is my favorite weekend of the year, and it’s not just because it’s the unofficial start to the summer season.
If you read my last column, you might remember me worrying that we had to change planes at JFK airport in New York on our latest trip and the crazy experience I had doing that there two years ago. Well, we’re back after an amazing trip to the Caribbean. However, JFK lived up to its awful rep…
As I pack for a trip (I know, when am I not on a trip?), I’m reviewing the itinerary for our upcoming flight. This time, a travel agent helped plan our route and connections, and we chose the times and flights that will maximize the time at our destination and on the beach (arrive early, lea…
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