By Ann Wlazelek For years, my husband and I spent New Year’s Eve at home, playing games with family or watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. The next day we ate pork and sauerkraut in the Pennsylvania German tradition for luck. It might not have been the most exciting or glamorous way to welcome the New Year but we were safe from drunken drivers and in the company... »
By Ann Wlazelek Stephanie Smith saw an image on the Internet and was instantly intrigued. It was a mandala, or circular art form created in one siting while meditating. She took out her notebook, started drawing and could not stop. “I liked the repetition,” she said of the circular designs that calm her creative clamor. That was almost seven years ago. Today, the 44-year-o... »
By Ann Wlazelek An estimated 69 percent of Americans, ages 35 to 44, are missing at least one tooth; another 26 percent over the age of 74 have lost all of their natural teeth. But that does not mean men and women must look like Alfred E. Newman or “Moms” Mabley. Nor does it mean they have no choice but to wear a bridge or dentures the rest of their lives. For most folks w... »
By Ann Wlazelek Parasailing has been on my bucket list for years, but every time I got close to soaring like a human kite behind a power boat, I chickened out. It didn’t matter that grandmothers had done it. I did not want my derriere being dragged across the water on America’s Funniest Videos. So, when a third opportunity presented itself on a Hawaiian cruise and my husba... »
By Ann Wlazelek Photo By Frank Mitman When New York’s Four O’Clock Flowers and The Down Hill Strugglers took the stage at Allentown’s West Park band shell during Art-in-the-Park in June, most of the people listening and clapping had no clue they were part of an experiment. Event organizers wanted to see if musicians other than the park’s popular yet traditional municipal a... »
By Ann Wlazelek It starts with a beat, as simple as rum-pum-pum-pum. It escalates as dozens of drummers, seated in a circle, pick up the rhythm and beat it over and over again. The sound builds. The rhythm resonates. Before they know it, participants move to the music, mesmerized, transcended. “There’s a space in time where everybody gets together,” coordinator Moe Jeran... »
By Ann Wlazelek Photo by Jim Rhoades When Tanara Govern unwinds with the girls after a rough week at work, the 41-year-old mother of four doesn’t head to a bar or book club. She grabs her skates and helmet and heads to the rink. That’s because the Lenhartsville woman is also known as “Helen Darink (hell-in-da-rink),” and the girls she meets are the Lehigh Valley Rollergirl... »
By Ann Wlazelek In March 2012, less than a year out of college and Army officer training, Reid George got what he asked for – deployment to Afghanistan. The Parkland High School graduate was 23. He knew no one in the war-torn country or what his role as a junior officer would be. What he knew was that he was being sent to the Zhari district, the birthplace of the Tal... »
By Ann Wlazelek Do you worry about work, paying bills, how you will care for an aging parent or any of life’s other countless challenges? If so, chances are you are experiencing one of the most common phenomenons known to man: anxiety. “Anxiety is like the common cold of psychology,” said Dr. Robert Gordon, an area psychologist for more than 40 years. Everyone is anxious a... »
By Ann Wlazelek Gabriella handed me the mirror. “What do you think?” she asked. “I have eyebrows,” I said excitedly. “And they won’t come off!” Tiny, hair-like lines, perfectly aligned, had been tattooed in a delicate arch over each of my eyes. How wonderful, I thought, to never have to draw my eyebrows again. And the whole process took less than an hour. No pain, just a ... »
