Category Archives: Aging

The Four Stages of Moving to Portland

Posted on August 9, 2025 by allisongreenwriter

Note: Non-Portlanders might want to listen to the theme from “Portlandia” while you read this post. Portlanders: This is your cringe warning.  Stage 1: Disbelief After spending most of our lives in Seattle, Arline and I moved to Portland in … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Portland, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Leaving Seattle

Posted on June 18, 2025 by allisongreenwriter

In the late 1970s, I used to peruse the bootlegs in a record store in Seattle’s University District. They had plain white sleeves with xeroxed images of the artists tucked in the plastic wrap. I still have my bootleg of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Family | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Birthdays Past

Posted on April 4, 2022 by allisongreenwriter

There’s something magical about our parents’ lives in the years just before and after we were born. Or maybe it’s only me that finds them magical. My parents met, fell in love, and made me. Out of nothing, something. Out … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Death and dying, Family, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Tribute

Posted on June 10, 2019 by allisongreenwriter

Two friends recently gave us sourdough starter at the same time and, not knowing what we were doing, we accepted both. One came with a name: Bobby. One came nameless. We soon took to thinking of our starters as “hers” … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Family | Tagged | 4 Comments

Love My City

Posted on March 18, 2016 by allisongreenwriter

Last night Seattle residents celebrated, remembered, and waxed poetic over the places we once loved that are now long gone. For me, it was Pizza and Pipes, a restaurant at 85th and Greenwood where organists rocked a huge Wurlitzer organ. … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Death and dying, Uncategorized, Writers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Since You Left Minneapolis

Posted on April 25, 2015 by allisongreenwriter

I turned thirty in Minneapolis. I wanted to celebrate with my girlfriend-at-the-time on the patio of the Loring Park Café, where a musician played saxophone from the roof. But it rained that day – a pummeling thunderstorm – and we … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, LGBT, Travel | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

New Publication: “Twenty Hours and Ten Minutes of Therapy,” The Gettysburg Review

Posted on March 15, 2015 by allisongreenwriter

The Gettysburg Review has published my essay, “Twenty Hours and Ten Minutes of Therapy,” in the spring 2015 issue. In 1985-1986, as I was coming out, I spent about six months in therapy. It was almost thirty years before I … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Essays, Family, LGBT, Writers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Silent Tide

Posted on February 9, 2015 by allisongreenwriter

In the year after we moved into our building, we never met the reclusive white-haired woman down the hall, and then she was carried away on a stretcher and didn’t come back. Some months later, Arline offered to periodically check … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Beaches, Death and dying, Faith/belief, Family | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment