by Eileen | Jun 21, 2021 | Uncategorized
Of all the household tasks, perhaps the most vexing is the putting on of the duvet cover. For those who don’t know, the duvet cover is a giant pillowcase-type-thing that goes on a down (or whatever) quilt. But unlike a pillow, the down duvet has no body to it,...
by Eileen | Apr 8, 2020 | Uncategorized
Way back in a recess of my mind I am sitting in the backyard on East 19th Street in Brooklyn and it is early summer. My grandmother is sitting in one of those woven beach chairs with the light aluminum frame, like the one she uses when she sits out in front of her...
by Eileen | Dec 9, 2018 | chile, feria, food, health, stomach snafu
There is this piece of Smith family lore, by which I usually mean to introduce something false, which I will later disprove or reframe, except in this case it’s true. It tells of a time when I, fresh from a brutally cold winter in Santiago, landed in my...
by Eileen | Feb 24, 2017 | chile, haha, language, santiago
When I was living in DC, I worked at a publishing company, writing business-to-business compliance manuals and newsy bits about environmental law. It was a pretty big office, maybe 60-80 people, and there was a core group of folks that I would make coffee-machine...
by Eileen | Apr 18, 2016 | bicycle, chile, photography, santiago
Rain, rain and more rain in Santiago. What’s a city to do? The first year I lived in Chile, I was caught unawares by many a rainstorm. First of all, because rain here seems to have a higher ceiling than it does in Portland or other places I’ve lived, where...
