When you’re a dog, a rescue dog, one that has been given back twice, your world is filled with fear, loud trucks, and scary men. So when you have to share your beach house with a big guy with facial hair, another woman who kind of looks like the one that feeds you, and another… Continue reading As Fresh as a Daisy, Dog Story
Category: memoir
Uncle Frank and the Jar of Coins
I grew up with three uncles, one in Colorado, another on the other side of the state, and one near my home town in Des Moines, Iowa. Uncle Frank was older than the other uncles, but since his daughter, Nina, was my age, I hardly noticed. He was married to my grandma’s younger sister. They… Continue reading Uncle Frank and the Jar of Coins
Wiener Dog Versus Rat
Long ago, when I had three school-aged children off at their respective schools, I sat at my desk writing during the quiet of the day when I heard the Dachshund barking. He was somewhere in our spacious backyard. I ignored it at first, but when the barking didn’t subside, I decided I’d better go check… Continue reading Wiener Dog Versus Rat
Massage Talk, Otter Card, and Scavenger Find
(re-run) Every other Tuesday I treat myself to a full-hour massage at my chiropractor’s office. Curtis is awesome. He can make this senior citizen feel almost 50 again. Curtis asks lots of questions while he is working on me. For the past several months I haven’t been able to talk, have barely been able to… Continue reading Massage Talk, Otter Card, and Scavenger Find
Living with OCD
I always knew I was different in the way I perceived the world. Instead of needing to do classic hand washing or constantly worrying about germs, I had other weird rituals, like never leaving the house without a Kleenex and needing to have a regular routine. I married a last-minute, no plan, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of… Continue reading Living with OCD
Late-night Loser
(re-run) We decided to meet at Bing Crosby’s. I took a seat at the bar, and asked for water. After all, I’d had two glasses of wine already, waiting for him to get off work at the TV station and to drive all the way to Walnut Creek from Marin County. I listened to the… Continue reading Late-night Loser
The Scars of our Lives
(re-run) When you get to be my age, you are bound to have a few scars. I haven’t had any big surgeries, but I do have scars from burns, bumps, and scrapes along the way. Right now it’s my thumb that is most noticeable. I broke it by pulling down a three-piece sectional garage door… Continue reading The Scars of our Lives
Black Jamaicans are African Americans
It was pointed out to me today on Facebook that people say the dumbest things. Today it was that Kamala Harris isn’t really African-American because her black father was from Jamaica. Here’s a news flash. Blacks in Jamaica are descendents of slaves, just as blacks from Venezuela, Brazil, Barbados, anywhere in the Americas are, as… Continue reading Black Jamaicans are African Americans
I Wish You Would’ve Died
Imagine a white woman from Iowa teaching Spanish in a town that was one fourth Latino. Imagine coming into the classroom mid-year after a string of substitutes. On my first day, a student said, “You’re our 12th sub. How long are you going to last?” It was a brand new middle school in Ramona in… Continue reading I Wish You Would’ve Died
Getting Away from all the No, No, No’s
(re-run) My mom, bless her heart, had to keep five children in line, mostly by herself. She did this by keeping everyone in his or her place, as in, “No, you can’t do that!” I just found out that my younger sister also wanted to play clarinet in the band, like I did. But I… Continue reading Getting Away from all the No, No, No’s
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 