You Need a License to Eat Here?

You Need a License to Eat Here? MysteryShrink Mexico Short Sonia, a new university friend, and I settled into a high-backed, carved wooden booth at the Gran Ancira Hotel Bar. Monterrey, Mexico, was the first night on our Freedom Trip adventure. The day before Sonia had pulled her application with …

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Love, Boundaries, and the Fastest Way to Ruin a Lovely Dinner

Food, Boundaries, and the Fastest Way to Ruin a Lovely Dinner MysteryShrink Short The couple at the next table at Brennan’s in old New Orleans giggled and smiled like newly weds- which they were. Both widowed in their sixties, they’d met a year ago on a cruise and married six …

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How to Be a Loving, but Separate Person, Hawaiian Pineapple Cake

How to Be a Loving but Separate Self…Otherwise you will drift between faking agreement and hiding anger. MysteryShrink Short: Love and Boundaries FOOD, Pineapple Upside Down Cake The couple had just finished the last meal of their magical Hawaiian honeymoon. The gazed into each other’s eyes. The fragrance of blossoms …

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How to Be a Loving, But Separate Self, Wedding Cake

How to Be a Loving but Separate Self…Otherwise you will drift between faking agreement and hiding anger. MysteryShrink Short: Love and Boundaries FOOD, Wedding Cake Leftovers The wedding had been held one on of those flowing green lawns behind Southern mansions, shaded by ancient and glorious oak trees hung with …

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Little Boys Have Love in Their Eyes

Little Boys Have Love in Their Eyes MysteryShrink Short I’m sitting at an outdoor table along the Plaza de San Francisco in San Luis Potosi yesterday. Weather’s lovely. Colonial churches, cinnamon chocolate in the air, old men hidden in clouds of balloons for sale. A ragged little boy of six …

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The Problem with Hotel Loyalty Programs

The Problem with Hotel Loyalty Programs is– The “Wrong People” Get In The management of Executive Lounges in luxury hotels should make us where a badge.  By ‘us’ I mean travelers like me who invade prestigious hotels and their ‘executive lounges’ by using Hilton points cards to charge gas, public …

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No Arms, No Hands, All Heart: The Beading Angel (sorry for the poor photo, you’ll understand)

No Arms, No Hands, All Heart The Beading Angel MysteryShrink in the Now* She’s always there. On the pedestrian walkway between the Mexico City Hilton and the Zocalo, sitting with her footless leg tucked under the one with the tennis shoe hiding where her toes were before the fire–her wings …

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