I was almost four and a half in the summer of 1977. Just a baby nerd-introvert. My mom was having a Tupperware party and wanted everyone out of the house, so my dad took my sister and me to the movies. I was so small that I could stand up in the row and put …
Confessions on a Dance Floor
I am not a good dancer. That doesn’t stop me from tearing it up in the kitchen to our famed 80s music mix. I used to dance a lot more, and in public; despite my introvert persona, I rarely missed a school dance as a teenager. Music has always moved me, literally. During college years …
Swans and Ducklings: A Story of Self-Image
Not long ago I came across an old driver’s license issued to me in 2000, when I was 27 years old. Driver license photos do not tend to be the most flattering likeness of a person, but as I peer at a seventeen-years-younger me through the reader-portion of my progressive lenses, I think to myself, “Huh. …
Rocks Calling: Confessions of A Petraphile
Rocks call to me. I could say simply that I collect rocks, but that feels reductive. Or perhaps even the opposite of what is true. Rocks collect me. Just this morning, The Husband mumbled that if I bring one more rock into the house, the floor might collapse. Picking up stones, pebbles, and rocks is …
Divining The Key
This spring marks five years of freelance writing. It was a slow start. I spent those first months reading and researching, while meeting my nephew’s school bus. Over the following two years, I cultivated business relationships and my time slowly began to fill with freelance work; I was ramping up for a big start to …
Summit Thoughts
I am not below ground. I am far up above in the sky, on a peak of rock. On the peak of me. Getting here was not guaranteed. Climbing over rocks and logs, feet moving over loose stone, knotty roots, and slick pine needles. A push from behind is needed to surmount a sizeable boulder. …
Cancer: A Retrospective
This post has been a long time coming. At this writing, it has been a little over two years and nine months since I was first diagnosed with melanoma. Treatment involved: 2 general anesthetic surgeries within 2 weeks of each other. The first a procedure to remove a crescent of my ear, put the ear …
Adventures in Babysitting: Boys of Summer
Summer is over for nephews K. and D. <sad trombone> Summer 2016 was ‘all-baseball all the time’ as both boys are on travel teams. Practices started way back in March. For months, if they weren’t at a game, they were at practice. I don’t know how my sister does it with them on separate teams …
