The band room was a freezer. “Vamos a sentarnos en el pasillo, clase.” “What?” “We’ll sit in the hallway today.” It was zero degrees outside. The school district wanted a Spanish class but had no classroom for me. I’d complained a zillion times – when the band teacher held private tuba lessons in his office,… Continue reading A Disco Era Story
Category: memoir
A Great Dane Story
When I was almost thirteen, I hung out at my neighbor Bonnie’s house, just one block away from mine, but it was different world. Both her parents worked full time, so we teens could hang there with no parental supervision. We were supervised, though, by the family’s Great Danes. I remember three dogs, but there… Continue reading A Great Dane Story
Usually I Blog, Today I Cleaned
Company is coming. It’s amazing what that will do to a person who doesn’t put things away daily, except maybe keys and dog treats. I look around the house. It’s an utter mess. Newspapers I have yet to read, books I have yet to read, sewing I have yet to sew, clean laundry in baskets,… Continue reading Usually I Blog, Today I Cleaned
Worst Mom Ever
(re-run) As a mother, choose your words and actions carefully, for eighteen years! Mom to three grown children, I still hear about the horrible things I said and the awful things I did to them as children. Oldest daughter with her dad’s dark heavy eyebrows: me, to her as a teen, “You might want to… Continue reading Worst Mom Ever
Get Some Facetime
As I stepped into the waiting room at my chiropractor’s office, three women and one guy were looking down at their cell phones, sitting in a symmetrical pattern amongst the u-shaped chairs. Feeling giddy from my fifty-five minute massage I said,” Well, this looks like a blog post to me! You’re all on your phones!”… Continue reading Get Some Facetime
A Text Dump and Surprise Lunch, Same Day
If you want to improve your dating life, I recommend dropping about thirty pounds in six months. Seriously, I don’t recommend developing the underlying issue, just achieving the weight loss. To make a long story short, a guy I met nine months ago, one who had lots of opportunities to break off whatever we had… Continue reading A Text Dump and Surprise Lunch, Same Day
Lovely Rita, Meter Maid
(re-run) Saturdays are best when they are busy. I like to have things to do. So yesterday was fun from morning to night. I spent most of the day in overly-metered Walnut Creek. The town of walnut orchards has turned into a buzzing destination for shoppers. It boasts a Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus (Needless Mark-up), Tiffany,… Continue reading Lovely Rita, Meter Maid
Behind Closed Doors
I read a great memoir about a girl’s tough childhood, with violence, danger, and an abusive older brother. I recommended it to Facebook friends online. A friend said she didn’t like it because she didn’t think the book rang true. “The Mormon part or the survivalist part?” I asked her. “Neither.” She didn’t think anyone… Continue reading Behind Closed Doors
Car Shows, Men, and Elvis
It’s funny how memories of one thing lead to memories of other things happening in the same time period. Like the Twin Towers falling, or JFK getting assassinated. Or Elvis dying. Today is the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Forty-two years ago, I was stepping off an airplane from Spain (by way of Morocco). I… Continue reading Car Shows, Men, and Elvis
Letting Go
My cars sit out in the summer. There’s no way they can go into the garage. Fires are burning north of here and have been for weeks. The Bay Area air is smoky. I look at the blue plastic tubs of flammable clothing and think, “It would take days for all of this to burn.”… Continue reading Letting Go
