In scrounging around for a first-worst-date story this week (after all, I’ve already done my own dates from Ames, Omaha, and Walnut Creek – how many first-worsts can one person have?), I discovered something. I hate some of my friends, the ones who’ve never had a bad date, ever. First there is Jim whom I… Continue reading Why So Many Worst Firsts
Category: California
On Guardian Angels
A friend and I had a glass of wine together the other night and reflected back on our lives and the times we should have been died but didn’t. Some would call it luck. Others would call it having a guardian angel. Some would say that was a weird way to spend an evening. At… Continue reading On Guardian Angels
Jerky Jokester
Elena lived in the city. She went to the Cingular Wireless store to get a phone line. Fidel worked there and helped her get one set up. She filled out the paperwork and then changed her mind. He put the paperwork into the shredder but then asked her for her phone number. “If you want… Continue reading Jerky Jokester
Lady Tenor in a Sea of Men
My chorus just did two back-to-back performances this past weekend. There are 120 of us this semester, with only thirty men. The men sing the bass and tenor parts, and five of us women sing the higher tenor part with the men. Why, you ask? Because we five gals have a lower range than the… Continue reading Lady Tenor in a Sea of Men
Mountain Lion
The latest mountain lion attack got me to thinking about how we humans hike, bike, and enter into cougar country and should know what to do in the event that we run into one. The newspaper article today tells about the two mountain bikers in Washington this past weekend that encountered a mountain lion. The… Continue reading Mountain Lion
The White Album
The last time I saw the Beatles cover band in the Santa Cruz mountains hippie town of Felton, I noticed that most of the crowd was coupled off, and most of the couples didn’t dance. They were too old, being die-hard Beatles fans for fifty years. It was a shame. The floor is real wood.… Continue reading The White Album
Do Nerds Laugh?
Yesterday, at my bi-monthly massage at the chiropractor’s, Curtis the masseur asked me lots of questions to help the fifty-five minute session go by. I was chatting away as he rubbed the kinks out of my neck, shoulder and lower back, telling him this and that, until he came around to the big question, “What… Continue reading Do Nerds Laugh?
Don’t Get a Sun Burn
You think you know someone. You’ve sat across from your brother in law at countless holiday meals. You raised your kids together, although far enough away that you only saw them four or five times a year. You know George loves Monterey, but you didn’t know the whole story. You knew he’d been in the… Continue reading Don’t Get a Sun Burn
The Dog Crate Disaster
When my pup was just over a year old, the Ghost Ship Fire happened in Oakland. 36 people died in a warehouse that had been converted into artist co-op with an illegal dance club on the second floor. When the fire started, the young people dancing upstairs were trapped, and they died. Tragedy. Every night… Continue reading The Dog Crate Disaster
Worst Dog Sitting Ever
When I was a newlywed, living in San Diego, my next door neighbor, Doreen, befriended me. She noticed I was home alone a lot, since my teaching job ended at 3:00, and my new husband didn’t come home from work until 7:00 or so. Doreen invited me over for food and chit chat. Once, she… Continue reading Worst Dog Sitting Ever
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 