http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/Just give me Advil, a fan and a brain that workshourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/582943It's my birthday today and I'm falling into walls, which must mean that a: I'm an old lady b; I've got an inner ear disorder or c: both I'll pick C this time. I woke up the day after Thanksgiving with the room and world spinning around me. I thought all of my grief with BPV (Benign Positional...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/582566Standing still is not for Jeff. ADDad, Wildman, His friends joke. Starts to talk when up at 5 Dark outside, time to move Makes my coffee; roused from sleep. The walls vibrate with his energy Aerobic time, his heart beats deep. Drops of sweat like canine shake. “Let’s scoot,” he says. Our word for...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/581570I live in Connecticut. My state has been the punchline of many jokes, including one that a New York friend of mine recited recently; "As soon as I cross the border from New York into Connecticut, my loafers grow tassels." Yes, Connecticut is reputed to be Waspy, conservative and staid. Since Jan....http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/581243I've got my laptop on my lap, feet propped up on my cocktail table, and I'm staring out a sliding glass door onto my deck. The sky is a hazy pale blue. I can see it through trunks of winter trees, bare limbs save for some brown leaves clinging for dear life on a few branches. Our Weber grill...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/580331You know that feeling, when you've just downed a lot of water, and, as you're walking, the liquid starts sloshing around in your stomach? It's a weird sensation, actually. This morning, I was heading downstairs and felt a similar stomach wave action, when I realized that I hadn't had anything to...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/580159I signed on to Bloggit to find that it's been 11 days since I last wrote here. What the hell have I been doing?? Besides the usual writing assignments, rewriting already written articles, and pitching others, I have finally succumbed to the dreaded, evil website that is the bane of many parents...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/578053My favorite color has always been purple, which probably explains why, up until the very last minute, I debated with myself about who to vote for. Blue? Red? Blue, red? Oh f** it, I'll just swirl them together to create, yes, purple. Of course, I couldn't really fill in both bubbles on the...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/577683While friends and members of my family took off precious time to stump for Obama this weekend in Pennsylvania, I was visiting here for another, rather embarassing reason; to check out a newly built indoor water park. As a travel writer, I never know where I'll be off to next, but suffice it to...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/576456One of the highlights of my magazine writing life was sitting with Pete Seeger around his dining room table and joining him in a few stanzas of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." Five years ago - at 83 - his voice was quivery, but nonetheless much better than mine. He didn't seem to care. I was...http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Gapcohen/576132Evita (with the original Broadway cast) is one of my alltime favorite musicals. When Palin's "wardrobe" costs were made public (more than 100 times what I spend in a YEAR), I couldn't help but belt out the song, "Rainbow High." watch Madona's version on this link;...