Grateful Not to Be Dead

PK lived in Jersey when her friend’s mum was terminally ill in Boston.  When her friend called to say her mother had died, PK woke up feeling bad but thought it was the heat. She wanted to go to the funeral and surprise her friend.  She loaded up her three-year-old daughter and took off for… Continue reading Grateful Not to Be Dead

Motion Sickness and Me

I have a friend who likes to apply her make-up in my car after I’ve picked her up. That way she can save time while I drive. I get to drive in the HOV lane with a carpool. All was good until the day she sprayed perfume on herself with me a foot away from… Continue reading Motion Sickness and Me

Shop Till You Drop

We had already hit two thrift stores and were heading for a third. Then I remembered that Vicky wanted to go to the ones in Carmel. I turned onto Forest Avenue and took the winding highway 68 through the Monterey pines. It would lead to the new roundabout that would send the traffic north to… Continue reading Shop Till You Drop

Landing In the Dog House

When you’re in the dog house, you are in trouble. You’ve done something bad. As a child, I was never in the dog house because we didn’t have one. We didn’t even have a dog. My mother had her own strain of weird expressions that she said to us kids on a regular basis, probably… Continue reading Landing In the Dog House

Only Human

It had been a busy day. After exercise class, I stopped at Costco to buy Sis a TV. The board and care home didn’t have one for her bedroom, and she wasn’t willing to go to the living room to watch it with the other five residents. She wasn’t willing to do much of anything.… Continue reading Only Human

Worst Roommate Ever

By the time I graduated college, I’d had somewhere close to 37 roommates: the first two in the triple room my freshman year, the next two in another triple when I changed dorms after one quarter, my solo roommate all of sophomore year, then the string of roomies after I moved into the sorority. Every… Continue reading Worst Roommate Ever

If There’s Music in the Park

We’ve waited all winter for this. It’s finally pay-off time. Every town in the Bay Area springs for a summer concert series in its town park, town square, or patch of grass. If a person is willing to drive, he/she can hear free outdoor concerts six nights a week for almost three months. We’ve waited… Continue reading If There’s Music in the Park

Chinese Fire Drills and Other Politically Incorrect Things from my Past

Back in high school in a suburb of Des Moines, Iowa, we did whatever we could to stir up some fun and sometimes some trouble. It was a simple existence: go to school, do homework, think about and look for boys. With no cell phones or social media to organize anything, kids spent a lot… Continue reading Chinese Fire Drills and Other Politically Incorrect Things from my Past

Worst Fake Friend Ever

When I moved to suburbia in the Bay Area, I joined the Danville-Alamo Newcomer’s club and then joined the babysitting co-op within the club. We were all new mothers with one or two children, and the thirty of us traded babysitting with coupons while our little families grew older and bigger. My two-year-old daughter bonded… Continue reading Worst Fake Friend Ever