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 …
My Blog
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 …
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 …
Racism in Black and White
“What? WHAT THE F*CK?!” This is not a good way to start the day. Shuffling into the kitchen, putting on the kettle, flipping on the morning news—this is routine. The news flickers on and the announcer prefaces an upcoming clip about an officer-related fatal shooting of a black man. This is becoming routine. A horrifying, …
You Got the Music in You
The husband and I own a lot of music. Our combined CD collection exceeds 400 albums, and about 15 years ago he acquired an obscene amount of ‘shared’ music from a C-shift lab computer at work. Our digital catalog now numbers around 5,000 songs; two MP3 players are dedicated mixes for both the 1980s and …
Sticky Stories: Notes from a Trade Show
One week ago today, I stretched way out of my comfort zone by participating as a vendor at the annual Women of Focus Trade Show. The one day event was the culmination of four months of expending time and money to prepare for my first big trade show. Why would a writer exhibit at a …