Traverse City Record-Eagle - Marta Hepler Drahos

Marta Hepler Drahos: Late bloomers
Bleary-eyed and exhausted after senior prank night, my exchange daughter still is giddy with excitement as she dons cap and gown for the traditional Senior Walk through her school's halls. As "Pomp and Circumstance" plays over the speakers, I recall my own high school graduation nearly 35 years earlier with mixed feelings.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Dream turns nightmare
We're a week away from a Hawaiian vacation with overseas friends when "the curse" strikes. As women of a certain age know, what may have been a routine event in earlier adulthood can be cataclysmic now. I know something is wrong when my face in the mirror blends into the white wicker frame. I'm dizzy. My heart pounds when I cross the room.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Hate mail keeps on
A recent column on e-mail's tendency to free the inner bully in us all struck a chord with dozens of readers, many of whom made comparisons between e-mailers and drivers. Several readers contend people in the service industry run afoul of the nastiest correspondents. A few wrote with suggestions for e-mail etiquette, including a longtime attorney. Then there were those who missed the point completely.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Readers can be nasty
Is it just me, or did civility go out of vogue when e-mail communication came in? As a community newspaper that wants to be responsive to its readers, we encourage you to write -- and make it easier by including reporter e-mail addresses at the top of local stories and columns. Still, I'm surprised at the hostility with which some people take up the invitation.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Universal language of music
'Thump-thump-thump-thump" comes the insistent beat of a drum through the heat register upstairs where I'm working. The music is pounding from the office below, where our exchange daughter also is working -- to the tune of the Pakistani pop singer I'm trying to tune out.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Another view on obesity
It's not easy having diabetes. Worse than the expensive drugs and supplies, the endless measuring and monitoring, and the needle pricks that can leave your skin bruised and sore, is the constant threat of serious complications. Now those with the disease are being made to feel guilty, too.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Not joining the crowd
As a downtown employee, I do most of my gift-buying in the three blocks surrounding my office. I even have a downtown discount card I largely forget to show. This year, though, I did my Christmas shopping online.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Couple is making music together -- for a lifetime
Sandwiching their wedding between rehearsals and performances may not be the big day most couples dream about. But then, Anton Shelepov and Carrie Pierce are hardly typical.
Marta Hepler Drahos: Dogs, age & bad backs
I was reading in bed, pinned between collie and hound, when the black shepherd decided to join us. Scooting over to make room, I felt it: That familiar wrench those with "bad backs" know can portend anything from a few stiff hours to complete incapacitation.
Taking heart from random act of kindness
A while back, I wrote about an unlikely recognition day in September called National Feel the Love Day. Oddly enough, I'm not a particularly nice person myself. I'm easily irritated, quick to judge -- although, really, am I the only one who resents being held hostage to 20 minutes of previews and commercials before the film starts?
Hemingway should serve as inspiration