In these angry, bewildering, terrifying post-Roe days, a bit of related wisdom came to me: I now understand why I didn't find my elder siblings earlier in our lives, when I was much angrier. There is no telling what I might have told my sister, when I found her, and wouldn't it have been terrible …
Category: Life
Mother’s Day: Lost, Sought, Found
It must have seemed possible to invent a more palatable past, to stay one step ahead of the truth if one just moved often and fast.
Pandemic Diaries: Social Distancing Week One
We were supposed to be in Napa, then San Francisco. We would have been in the airport right now and then boarding a steel tube likely filled with COVID-19, having passed through two of the busiest airports in the country, also probably simmering in virus. Fortunately we paid attention to the first stories and followed …
Continue reading Pandemic Diaries: Social Distancing Week One
Hair Time
"Avert your eyes. I'm not here. You're not seeing this," I hollered at Paul, still in the shower, as I sat on the edge of the tub, lathering my legs from the travel-size can of Barbasol my daughter left here last Christmas. Starting with the right leg I continued, "This is on the same continuum …
Mosquitoes Vs Nerds
It was a wet-ish Spring, and now with summer upon us Paul and I are routinely covered in mosquito bites and nurse each other with dabs of clear caladryl lotion. The air was fragrant with Windex and I victoriously scrubbing the bathroom mirror when Paul walked in. "Didn't you just do that?" "Yup, but I …
Babbling Bucket of Bad Interview
This Lent I got a much-needed (I am sure) lesson in Humility. It's just the most recent in a lifetime of them; they keep coming since clearly I Don't Get It. There was a job posting for which I was eminently qualified. The first interview, with a panel of three professional women I would be …
(Be the) Candle
My daughter earned her degrees from the great University of Texas, Austin and one is a Bachelors in Women's and Gender Studies. I love our conversations, even when her clear-headed feminism dispels my own long and closely-held bullshit. Maybe especially when she dispels my culturally ingrained, but ultimately diminishing, bullshit. I was raised to expect praise, get …
Fork/Daily Post
Anyone who knows me would be forgiven thinking that given the writing prompt "Fork" I would offer recipes. But that's not what I thought of. Here is what I thought of: a long time ago when I was very young, I attended the wedding of two good friends. Many years later I learned one came to a fork …
Grief Waves
It's probably normal for a coastal-raised child to liken many things to the sea. Currents and tides have been a useful metaphor for me (and many writers far better), but I think the reasons why became clearer for me Saturday while grocery shopping. Grief is sneaky, unlike ocean tides and waves which while sometimes dangerous, are at least …
Viola
Maybe it was the production of Working - A Musical I saw yesterday that had me noticing people today, or maybe it was the absence of my plump, grandmotherly strawberry stand lady. Isn't it odd how quickly we become accustomed to people and places? I only discovered the strawberry stand maybe four weeks ago, but every …
Southern Fried Californian 