I had taught school for two years in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska, when I interviewed for a new job at a bigger school on the outskirts of Omaha. I had the interview on a Friday afternoon after a full day of teaching and a fifty-minute drive. I was exhausted and probably looked that way.… Continue reading The English Teacher
Category: memoir
The Big M is Back!
Five and a half years ago, I went in for a skin check and was told that I had melanoma, even before the biopsy came back. The physician’s assistant knew it when she saw it on the front of my lower leg. Where did the dark brown mole come from? True, I’d been doing lots… Continue reading The Big M is Back!
Me Week and the Universe
(re-run) Now that summer is behind me, and keeping up with the music/dancing scene has slowed way down, I decided to get myself tuned up for the holidays. That involved a colonoscopy, a dental appointment, eye doctor, skin doctor, new glasses and a haircut. The colonoscopy was first, a three-day event because two years ago,… Continue reading Me Week and the Universe
Another One Bites the Dust
I had only been a teacher for a few years when I was asked to teach an interest class during lunchtime. I agreed to teach aerobics, since I loved doing them, and why not? I was young, strong, and didn’t look half bad in an 80s leotard, complete with leg warmers and a sweat band… Continue reading Another One Bites the Dust
Highway Dog
(re-run) I’m in my little beach town, up the road a bit from Carmel. At the end of each month, the block of thrift stores in the Barnyard Shopping Center near Carmel Valley put their merchandise at 50% off for a day or two. Yellow Brick Road was on its second day of sale yesterday,… Continue reading Highway Dog
Ah Choo! It’s Allergy Season
(re-run) My friends post photos of themselves gallivanting through our green hills dotted with wildflowers. It’s California, we are having the driest February in 160 years, and the pollen is exploding everywhere. My nose itches by just looking at the photos of the greenery. I bought an air purifier. I dug out my Flonase. I… Continue reading Ah Choo! It’s Allergy Season
The Weakest Link – my Low Back
(re-run from 2020) The good thing about the current Coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown is that I have a hundred projects to finish. Suddenly I have nothing but time to do it all. Everything was going along swimmingly yesterday. I exercised. I painted (spray-painted picture frames), I picked up dog poop. I did a heavy load of… Continue reading The Weakest Link – my Low Back
Male Egos ‘R’ Us
(re-run) Decades ago, when I was the mother of a two-year-old girl and hugely pregnant with another child, our little family took a Sunday drive down to Dublin to visit the toy store. I was lost in a world of motherhood, tolerating acid-inducing fetal kicks and not paying attention to what was happening outside of… Continue reading Male Egos ‘R’ Us
My Three-quarter Bike Ride
(re-run) I was the one that suggested the bike ride with two of my adult children. They don’t spend much time outdoors or get enough exercise. They like to ride the Iron Horse trail. It is an easy, shady railroad right of way that connects towns up and down the I- 680 corridor in the… Continue reading My Three-quarter Bike Ride
Naming the Rescue Dog
(re-run) The day after Christmas I bought myself a belated gift. I got an adult dog to be a buddy to my exuberant two year old dog. I’d been to the Martinez animal services shelter the week before, since they had so many dogs (140) and were giving them away. It was cold and damp… Continue reading Naming the Rescue Dog
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 