(re-run) I was fifteen hundred miles away from home. It was the summer of 1975. I had my sample case with me from Southwestern Books. I’d worn my hot pants to stay cool. I had already rung three dozen doorbells. Selling books door to door wasn’t always a cake walk. It was lunchtime. I had… Continue reading My Past Life as a Cat Burglar
Category: humor
A Scavenger’s Life
(re-run from 2019) I see value in things that others don’t see. It can be blessing and also a problem. That paper bag? Take it to my favorite thrift store. The plastic bag the newspaper comes in? A poop bag on a dog walk. A cracked dinner plate? A water-catch for a ceramic pot. So… Continue reading A Scavenger’s Life
Don’t Stand Up!
(re-run) It was a long train ride from Lima to Cuzco, or maybe it was from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. At any rate, I was on a train with a bunch of Peruvians and my roommate, Kristy. Trains give me motion sickness, as do boats, cars, planes, swings, and carnival rides. It’s a miracle that… Continue reading Don’t Stand Up!
Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
(re-run) While student teaching in Venezuela, I learned how to have fun with not much money. One of the American teachers had stolen a couple of striped beach towels from an upscale hotel, and she had been sneaking into the hotel pool for years. “Just carry the towel and act like you belong,” Linda said.… Continue reading Worst Weekend Getaway Ever
Best Laid Plans
(re-run) It was a Sunday. I was supposed to be going to a birthday party in Antioch, forty minutes away. But the day had become a comedy of errors. I had sweet-talked my son into installing my new printer and had lured him over with the promise of pizza for lunch. It took him longer… Continue reading Best Laid Plans
Having his Cake
(re-run) Fran and I sat at the bar at Il Vecchio’s next to the guy with the shaved head. Fran chatted him up while we waited for a table. We decided to have dinner at the bar. Adam was cute enough but not too tall. He seemed interested in petite Fran, so at the end… Continue reading Having his Cake
First Dog, Lost Dog
After moving to farm country to teach high school Spanish, I watched my roommate Kristy come home one day with a German Shephard puppy. “Meet Shane!” she said. She hadn’t asked me. She hadn’t asked the landlord. When she did ask him, his response was, “Not in the house.” Kristy made Shane a bed of… Continue reading First Dog, Lost Dog
Worst Roommate Ever
(re-run) 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… Continue reading Worst Roommate Ever
A Mother’s Day Card, a “10” and a Carcinoma
Whenever I don’t know what to write about for my daily blog post, something inspires me. Today I got my inspiration at the dermatologist’s office. I was supposed to go yesterday to see about the weird fleshy bump just above my left eye and against my eye socket. I don’t notice it too much except… Continue reading A Mother’s Day Card, a “10” and a Carcinoma
With Six You Get Eggroll
My, how times have changed. The movie name in my title came out in 1968, and it’s a reference to how having a family of six can benefit you at a Chinese restaurant. Two of my kids are bi-coastal, having grown up on one coast and now working on another. They are quick to call… Continue reading With Six You Get Eggroll
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 