For two days my Facebook feed has been awash with friends posting pictures of their siblings, coupled with loving shout-outs to the brothers and sisters who irritated, annoyed, helped with, and shared their youth and parents. It's sweet. And normal, because I guess it's more the norm than being like me, an Only Child. And an …
Category: Family
Pillows of Optimism
Insomnia. Once upon a time I would have laughed myself silly at the notion I would ever suffer from it. Sleep was blissful respite, a safety zone from the terrors of the day, whatever form they took: bullying classmates; bullying mother; bad boyfriends; academic anxiety; work stress; parenting. Then came middle age. Perimenopause. Divorce. Survival. …
Ivan the (recently) Terrible, Blanca, and the Politics of Cats & Dogs
Poor Ivan, Ivan the (recently) Terrible, Ivan the cat nobody wanted. Found by my step-son, Sean, the night Sean's mother died, he'd been abandoned to whatever fate befalls tiny kittens taken too soon from their mother. There was no sign of momma-cat or siblings, just tiny Ivan, whom kindhearted Sean scooped up from a dumpster by the local …
Continue reading Ivan the (recently) Terrible, Blanca, and the Politics of Cats & Dogs
Dam Hearts
Our house is a five-minute drive from the largest man-made lake in South Carolina, Lake Murray, a reservoir fed by the Saluda River and across which is the Saluda Dam/Dreher Shoals Dam. A dream since the turn of the last century, the lake is named for the engineer, William S. Murray, who made it come true. It's …
Tuesday’s Child
Our daughter-in-law, Sarah, is in labor even as I type this. She's about to bring a baby boy into the world. A baby boy to carry on the name, which shouldn't matter really, as we have a granddaughter who certainly seems to be carrying on the Irish stubbornness just fine. But all new babies are …
Foundation/The Village/Sunday School
There we were: my partner-in-Sunday School-teaching-crime, Arthur, our solitary student, and me. As we peppered him with questions about the text of the day, this not shy middle school boy said the only logical thing there was to say, "Argh.....! Don't quiz me!" And we weren't really quizzing, but I'm sure it feels like a quiz when …
Star Fruit and Shopping Carts
We had a nice Christmas, able to fly Charlotte out from Chicago, give each other a couple of nice gifts, send some cash out to the kids and grand-kids in Texas. But like about everyone I know, come January we're feeling the pinch. So I was comparison shopping with greater care and squelching the impulsive …
An Old, Unlikely Angel
I was feeling a bit sorry for myself yesterday, finishing off left-over pasta puttanesca. For the record, puttanesca is delicious the first day, a bit lack-luster the second, but the mediocrity both suited and fed my mood. Today is October 1st, and the fourth anniversary of my friend's, Jeff's, death. I've been feeling his loss …
The Birds & Bees & Uncle Duane’s Chickens
The casual way TV sitcom characters talk about sex, all the time, in front of their TV sitcom children is something that never quite rings true to Paul and me, though it did have us laughing about our turns at bat delivering The Talk to our own respective children. My former brother- and sister-in-law kept chickens on …
Buried Treasures: Swiss Steak
We bought a house! Now we just need to move into it, made far easier by our intrepid realtor getting the deal done with a bit of over-lap between apartment and house. My free time is now spent schlepping boxes to the new place, and reveling in having time to organize it just right. Because …
Southern Fried Californian 