Category Archives: Happiness is an Inside Job

You Gotta Be: Ask Away Friday with Tamara Camera Blog

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Well, hey, there, blog! Remember me? Yes, blog, you’ve been neglected but admittedly, I have a lot of distractions right now. Like this storefront. Hey, readers!  I miss y’all! Want to take a look at what lies beyond that building permit? Yeah, I’m loving the purple and green. And when you come to visit me this summer, (see how I’m not saying “if” but “when?”), there will be photos Swami Satchyananda at the opening ceremonies of the Woodstock Music Festival and of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon adorning those purple walls. You want to see something else? Meet the face … Continue reading →

Saying Goodbye to the Skull Cap

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Every now and then, I get this crazy idea in my head about getting together with friends who live in different parts of the country. As a blogger, I have met people, at least in that virtual sense, from every corner of the US. During the meetups I’ve had with blogging buddies, both formal and informal, I have a hard time with goodbyes. I’ve grown close to many of you. My business website has been on my to-do list for a few months now and since the fall, I’ve had a note to get a professional headshot taken. Yet every … Continue reading →

A Million Little Things

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There are things I can talk about today that I never thought once of three months ago.  I can tell you how much credit card merchants charge business owners per transaction to swipe a Visa or Master Card.  I can tell you the required distance a hot water heater must be from an electrical box.  I can tell you about the advantages of three phase versus single phase electric.  I can tell you about grease interceptors and vent hoods and HVAC loads and privilege licenses and how a town determines whether or not a business establishment must have a public … Continue reading →

The Bridge

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I have six good memories of my father. When I was four, we spent the winter in Florida, and my dad bought me an ice cream sandwich for the good behavior I displayed one morning while running errands with him.  There was the time, also in Florida, that he saved me from being stuck in an elevator by myself.   After a drinking binge with my friends, as a teenager, where a drunken fall caused me to chip my front tooth, my father, a dentist by profession, took me to his office that night and bonded up the chip, without once … Continue reading →

Upside Down

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“I fell in love,” I said, wrapping my hands around my coffee cup. “Well, that was a mistake,” he replied, shaking his head from side to side. “You can’t do that when you go into business. “ I looked out the window of the coffeehouse, which faced the main drag through town, and recalled the moment it happened. I had given up on finding a commercial space to rent through a real estate agency.  The broker listings were scarce, they stood in undesirable locations, or commanded too much rent.  One morning, feeling particularly frustrated with my choices, I drove the … Continue reading →

Out of Order

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If you had asked me a few hours earlier, I would have thought the flat tire would have been the trickiest part of my day. When I finally decided to acknowledge the “Check Tire Pressure” light flashing on my dashboard, the air pump at the gas station sucked the air out of my tire instead of putting it in.  Maybe, had I paid closer attention, I would have noticed the rubber of the Goodyear sagging into the concrete before the tire actually went flat, or I would have bothered to flip the backwards piece of paper on top of the air … Continue reading →

Good Stuff

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“Do you like it?” She asks. “It’s good,” I say,  “It’s really good.  And definitely the best I’ve eaten since I’ve lived here.” And it is good, worlds better than the Walmart pizza that I had begun to accept as passable, crisp yet chewy crust, flavorful cheese, tangy sauce.  I’ll definitely go back there for more. Tomorrow, even, knowing me. “Have you been running,” L. asks as we eat. “A lot,” I say.  “Probably more than I should be.  I ordered a case of vanilla Cliff shots from Amazon.  Have you ever eaten those things?  They’re like vanilla cupcake frosting.”  … Continue reading →

The Familiar

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I felt out of sorts last week when, for the first time since college, I spent the Jewish high holy day Rosh Hashanah, without my family.  I should clarify that I’m not particularly religious.  I’ve discussed my ambivalence about religion before on my blog.  However, a traditionalist I am.  There are the rituals that come with certain holidays for me, the family dinners, the prayers,  the walks around my mother’s neighborhood with my children in between services at synagogue,  the rhythm of those days, so deeply ingrained in me, that the diversion from the familiar felt awkward. I briefly entertained … Continue reading →

Faster

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Maybe it was the parking ticket or the broken windshield or maybe it was the fact that my mother’s house, where I’m staying, had no internet or maybe it was the fact that I was under the same roof as my mother to begin with, but by Sunday, I started to lose my Namaste-ness. OK, let’s be honest.   The Namaste-ness began to slip away weeks ago, the tension of having to be out of my house by closing time on Friday (which I made with an hour to spare) or the mounting conflict of dealing with the naysayers in my … Continue reading →

I Heart Robert

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He had a William Shatner thing going.  He was older than me, by at least twenty years, but young, nice jeans, good shoes, great smelling cologne that I caught a whiff of as he whizzed by with his tool box.  He sang to himself as he walked from his van to my front door. I was in denial about my dryer, the rattling that got louder and louder that one week, during softball season where there was mud on all of my daughter’s clothes.   With a family of five, Laundromat was a dirty word.  I desperately called around to … Continue reading →