(re-run) I’ve been on the hunt for bookcases for a while now. I have ten tubs of antique books sitting in a damp garage near the beach, and I think it would be good to get them into the house. I sold all my beautiful bookcases when I was getting divorced. I knew the new… Continue reading Whatever is Meant to Be
Category: memoir
Mother-in-law and the Birth Control Device
Years ago, visiting my mother-in-law in Omaha with my husband and two (or three) kids, I faced a dilemma. What to do with my diaphragm as it air-dried after I washed it? There was no discreet place to put it, since we all shared the same bathroom. Instead, I elected to put it up in… Continue reading Mother-in-law and the Birth Control Device
Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
(re-run) After moving to Omaha and teaching for a couple of years across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I grew tired of driving a car that smelled like a mildewed basement. My poor Chevy Monza had suffered through a Nebraska flood back at the farmhouse, and the car stank. I couldn’t afford a… Continue reading Waitresses Make the Best Tippers
Abortion, High School Pregnancies and Memories
(re-run) It amazes me how one memory leads to the next and so on and so forth. Our brains are a beehive of memories, each one stashed in its own little honey-comb hexagon that doesn’t break out until something triggers it. Today it was talk of abortion and how a friend told of hers at… Continue reading Abortion, High School Pregnancies and Memories
The Sprinkler Man and the Glass Coffee Table
(re-run) When my two oldest children were 5 and 2, we moved from one house in town to another. We didn’t gain any square footage, but the new house had a huge yard, front and back, and forty trees in a better neighborhood. The house had been vacant for months. The sprinklers weren’t working in… Continue reading The Sprinkler Man and the Glass Coffee Table
The White Album
(re-run) 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, having been die-hard Beatles fans for fifty years. It was a shame. The floor is… Continue reading The White Album
The Weakest Link – my Low Back
(re-run) 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 laundry. I… Continue reading The Weakest Link – my Low Back
Two Tubs In, One Tub Out
I gave away 78 pioneer outfits to a 4th grade teacher today. I used to sell them online for school field trips, but that all came to a screeching halt with the pandemic. During the lockdown, I finished every dress and shirt in my sewing room, increasing my inventory load with nowhere to sell it.… Continue reading Two Tubs In, One Tub Out
Piglet in a Box
(re-run) Carin was working, cutting her stepsister’s hair at the salon her mom owned. Her cell phone vibrated. She never took calls during work. All of her friends and family knew that. It vibrated again, a second call from the same number. She picked up. It was her ex boyfriend, Rob. Rob was two ex-boyfriends… Continue reading Piglet in a Box
It’s a Jungle Out There
(re-run) I saw a coyote yesterday during my strength and training class at the senior center. There are so many people in the drop-in class that I have to stand right in front of the glass doors, with a view of the hills filled with wild turkeys, birds, and now Wiley Coyote. My back hurts… Continue reading It’s a Jungle Out There
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 