Marlene A. Sassaman's Page

Unlike the holiday shoppers who joined the black Friday frenzy, the inertia that keeps me moving from a 5:30 am swim to a late night walk with the dog, seemed to have been stopped when I boarded Delta flight 1450. From the moment I sat down on the aisle seat, stretched my legs, and began toying with my camera I metamorphed into a sedentary speciman.

Just as I am usually determined to spend an eighth of my day exercising, I became determined to organize the more than 1000 photos taken during my… Continue

As the song goes, there's no place like home for the holidays and we all know home is where the heart is. Couple this with rainy weather a gazillion cars in a hurry to get home, crowded airports, plane delays, and a tight budget going home is a little stressful this year. Even still, the confidence I gained from my summer solo sail has even given me the hutzpah to stand tall, be a frugal shopper and take perhaps a much needed break from sailing.

After 62 days of solo cruising I came home to my… Continue

Someone else just posted a message asking for tips about winterizing. Here in Sunny Florida we winterize by changing our weekly night racing to Sunday afternoons, leave work early on Friday to sail down the river where we drop anchor and sleep late on Saturday morning. Around noon or 1 pm, we clean the bottom of the boat as our excuse to go for a refreshing swim with the dolphins in the continually shifting waters at Sebastian Inlet. Then, around 4 pm we pull up the anchor and drift over to a de… Continue

A sea knots friend recently asked where my writings are. A loyal crew on our women's sailing team reminded me to write. My calendar tells me that time is slipping away. All I want to do is sail and write and swim and work out and dance at parties and visit with friends and be with my family and be a good school counselor and produce interesting slide shows and snuggle up with my husband and enjoy my home and make money and buy things that catch my attention and eat frozen yogurt and learn to spe… Continue

Sitting in the last row in an auditorium designed to hold 500 people, I could barely make out the features on the face of my professor. His message, though rings as loud today as it did when he first spoke it. The course was a requirement, "Personal Finance." I debated whether to take basket weaving or flute lessons but decided to be smart and learn how to manage my money. Fast forward 33 years and I'm still making credit card mistakes. Although I am proud to say that for the past 13 years I did… Continue