While student teaching in Venezuela, we 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. Christy… Continue reading Sneaking into the Pool
Category: memoir
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
Royals
Today’s the day (technically tomorrow), when a prince marries an American! A celebrity! A person of mixed race! The world has gone gaga for a royal wedding. I am not that much into all things British, but I do like the family Windsor. After all, Prince William married my distant cousin, Kate. Yes, my maiden… Continue reading Royals
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?
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
Loneliest Study Abroad Ever
After three months in South America and six weeks of student teaching Catholic high school girls, I headed to Burgos, Spain, with 30 students and a handful of professors from Iowa State and the University of Iowa. It would be my way of earning the final credits of my dual degree. Linda, a high school… Continue reading Loneliest Study Abroad Ever
A Chance of a Ghost
This is not a Halloween story. No words written in blood on the hallway walls, no moaning spirits or flickering lights, or candles blowing themselves out. Just a feeling of not being alone. Ghosts, if you will, leftover energy from those who came before us. As a child I was called the sensitive one. I… Continue reading A Chance of a Ghost
Jeff Bezos Rules the World
Macy’s, Sears, J. Crew, Radio Shack, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Payless Shoe Source, Toys R Us, closed or closing stores in 2018. Borders, Barnes and Noble, and indie bookstores everywhere are closing. Mom and Pop shops are no more. What Ebay and Etsy did to antique stores, Amazon is doing to all the rest of the… Continue reading Jeff Bezos Rules the World
Getting Zen During a Hospital Exam
I got called back after my mammogram this week. They wanted to do an ultrasound on the right breast. I went in Tuesday, but they were so backed up that I left without being seen. Two days later I got right in and was lying there, looking up at the ceiling, my first thought being… Continue reading Getting Zen During a Hospital Exam
Oh No! Not the Dubs!
Last week I took Sis to the hospital for a Barium Swallow test. We had just settled into the waiting room when an elderly woman with a cane came in the door. She had to go around Sis’s wheelchair to get to the check-in window. “Am I at the right place?” she asked no one… Continue reading Oh No! Not the Dubs!
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 