Stretch your legs on an airplane: no one tucked under the seat in front of you Learn a lesson in humility: people no longer say “She’s beautiful!” when you enter a room Sleep: the 5 a.m. “I’m hungry” wake-up call happens in Pennsylvania now Get through TSA without being wanded Take an escalator without cringing […]

I spent last Sunday afternoon with my husband Mike and friends Jim Loellbach and Dr. Janet Smith enveloped in holiday music. Not your everyday stuff – this was the Marcus Roberts Trio with the Chicago Philharmonic, playing holiday classics arranged by Duke Ellington. A Concerto written by George Gershwin. Holiday jazz. I love jazz and […]

I was busy shoving Whitney’s water dish and extra leash and a Braille copy of Safe & Sound into my backpack Wednesday morning when it dawned on me. The presentations we’d be doing at Ravinia and Braeside schools in Highland Park that afternoon would mark Whitney’s final school visits as a working Seeing Eye dog. […]

My Seeing Eye dog Whitney and I gave presentations to three more groups of third graders this past Tuesday. It’s Disability Awareness Week at Sherwood Elementary and Red Oak Elementary Schools in Highland Park, Illinois. An athlete who is blind had been at both schools the day before to give presentations, and the third graders […]

This past Tuesday my friend Jamie drove Whitney and me to the north suburbs of Chicago to visit four different groups of third graders there. We were in Deerfield as part of Educating Outside The Lines, a disability awareness program that uses a hands-on approach to help kids discover how things like wheelchairs, sign language, […]