Memoir | Virtually Gina

Deprogramming the Messages from a Christian Science Childhood

July 4, 2022 by Gina Marie

“It’s not that easy to let go of the way you were taught to think about everything.” -Leah Remini, Season 1: Episode 10 Scientology and the Aftermath I have recently begun to re-evaluate a chapter of my life I thought had closed long ago: that is, the departure from my childhood religion, Christian Science. I haven’t set foot in the church in nearly a decade, nor read the literature, nor followed the principles with which I’d been raised — not […]

Categories: Memoir • Tags: Memoir, religious trauma, christian science

The Hilarity of Life

August 11, 2019 by Gina Marie

On the second day of my period during a marital separation, feeling extra hormonal and mopey, I hopped on a bicycle and passed a scene that could only happen in New York. A scruffy-looking fellow who I probably would have mistaken for homeless except that he was riding an expensive-looking bicycle, was BLASTING Sinead O’Connor’s rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which—under the circumstances—brought tears to my eyes. I pedaled behind him for a few blocks, listening to the mournful […]

Categories: Bicycles, Brooklyn, Heartbreak, Life, Love, Memoir, New York City, NYC, Personal, Short Story

Mitla Magic

June 9, 2019 by Gina Marie

The confluence of two conversations with women I admire led me on a solo half-day sojourn to Mitla, not with a tour group (as I have previously done during these past three weeks in Mexico), but on my own. The first conversation was by text message with a friend, M, whom I haven’t seen in almost three years. Her intuition and connection to spirit has always impressed me, so when she advised that I meditate at the ruins, I made […]

Categories: Architecture, Mannequins, Memoir, Mexico, Nikon, Oaxaca, Photography, Travel • Tags: Mexico, Mitlan, Oaxaca, Photography, Travel

Lessons Learned from a Year in New York

April 21, 2018 by Gina Marie

I’ve always loved cities. I love the hustle and bustle, the cool architecture, the colorful street art. When my husband and I made the decision to move from suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey, to the crown jewel of all American cities last year, it seemed like a dream come true. From the very beginning, I knew that there would be sacrifices. Steep housing costs and cramped living quarters were just the beginning. In preparation, I got rid of as much […]

Categories: America, Humor, Memoir, New York, New York City, Personal, Recovery, Urban • Tags: Humor, Memoir, New York, New York City

The Bridge That Glows Golden

February 14, 2016 by Gina Marie

It was nearly midnight on my last night in Budapest, and I was perched by a bay window in our room at the Sofitel, where my new husband and I were staying on the final night of our honeymoon. The room had a magnificent view of the Lanchid, or “Chain Bridge”, aglow with golden lights that spanned the Danube river. As I gazed out the window, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. * * * My father and his family […]

Categories: Ancestry, Budapest, Europe, History, Memoir, Personal, Photography, Travel • Tags: Budapest, Family HIstory, Hungary, Memoir, Photography, Travel

Boston: A Love Note

November 17, 2015 by Gina Marie

The architecture was what struck me the most: miles of Back Bay brownstones, Victorians lining the Emerald Necklace park system that sprawled along Commonwealth Avenue into the heart of the city. Boston changed forms with the seasons: glistening in the wintertime with continuous nor’easters, pink with flowering trees in the springtime, green and quiet in the summer when students had gone home, bustling and colorful in autumn when they returned in September. I was one of them for a time. I had come to the city to […]

Categories: Architecture, Boston, Color, Journal, Life, Memoir, Photography, Prose/Poetry, Random, Thoughts for the Day, Travel, Trees, Writing • Tags: Boston

Farewell to a Wooded Wonderland

May 30, 2015 by Gina Marie

Four years ago, Philadelphia beckoned. With its historic streets, ample museums, and plethora of restaurants, there was never any reason to be bored. What surprised me the most, though, was the vast geographic area the city took up (135 square miles, to be precise). Living in the northwest corner of the city, my husband Jeff and I often cruised a stretch of road called Lincoln Drive, which passed underneath a deeply forested area that reminded us of Jurassic Park. I […]

Categories: America, Boxers, Dogs, Journal, Life, Memoir • Tags: Dogs, Hiking, iPhoneography, nature, Philadelphia, Photography

My Kind Of Town . . . To Visit

March 15, 2015 by Gina Marie

That Toddling Town It was half a lifetime ago when I made my first visit to Chicago. I was 18 years old, a college freshman on a road trip to DC with a group of friends. We crashed for a night on the outskirts of America’s third largest city, and I marveled at the unfamiliar, slightly gritty, architecture and the way the buildings all seemed to crowd together. On our way out, we drove past a billboard on 1-90 which […]

Categories: America, Chicago, Memoir, Photography, Travel, Urban • Tags: America, Chicago, Memoir, Photography, Travel, Urban

Just One Tiny Bite

August 9, 2014 by Gina Marie

Summertime 2006. I was with my friend Dylan, who suggested that we go out for ice cream. “I’m trying to lose weight,” I reminded him. “Ice cream is strictly on the ‘forbidden foods’ list.” “So just come keep me company,” he suggested. I shrugged and followed him to the car, taking my usual spot in the passenger seat as he drove the approximately three miles to the nearest Dairy Queen. At the drive through window, he ordered one large Heath […]

Categories: Food, Friendship, Humor, Memoir, Short Story • Tags: Humor, Memoir, Short Story, summer