(re-run, pre-pandemic) The week after Christmas is dead time for scheduled activities. Chorus rehearsals are cancelled. The city building where I exercise three times a week is closed. There’s a lot of extra time during the day. So . . . . . . for the first time in two and a half years, I… Continue reading The Power of Vacation
Category: travel
Pooping at 28,000 Feet
I’m not a great traveler. I usually can’t poop in a strange environment, or with a roommate, or in a public toilet. My bowels, you see, are shy. Peeing is not a problem. My mom used to run the water when I couldn’t pee as a kid. Now all I have to do is think… Continue reading Pooping at 28,000 Feet
Airport Surprise
(re-run) She wanted to surprise him. They had both left Hawaii at different times to go home for Christmas and would meet up that night when he picked her up from the airport. He liked lingerie. She had bought a new thong for the holidays, red on one side, green on the other, with two… Continue reading Airport Surprise
The Princeton Ploy
(re-run) It was Sue’s third day as a freshman at Temple University in Philadelphia. She was riding the elevator with her friends between Hardwick and Johnson Hall when he got on. He had all of his stuff. He was moving in. “School started already,” one of her friends said. “I was in San Diego,” he… Continue reading The Princeton Ploy
Leopard in a Tree and OCD
My girlfriend and her husband went on safari in Kenya. “You should do it!” she said. “It’s amazing! Just try it!” I have to admit that her photos were amazing – lions, lionesses, giraffes, elephants, some taken at very close range. When I saw the leopard in the tree photo, I had to ask how… Continue reading Leopard in a Tree and OCD
A Scavenger’s Life
(re-run from 2019) I see value in things that others don’t see. It can be blessing and also a problem. That paper bag? Take it to my favorite thrift store. The plastic bag the newspaper comes in? A poop bag on a dog walk. A cracked dinner plate? A water-catch for a ceramic pot. So… Continue reading A Scavenger’s Life
Don’t Stand Up!
(re-run) It was a long train ride from Lima to Cuzco, or maybe it was from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. At any rate, I was on a train with a bunch of Peruvians and my roommate, Kristy. Trains give me motion sickness, as do boats, cars, planes, swings, and carnival rides. It’s a miracle that… Continue reading Don’t Stand Up!
Old Mom on Vacation
(re-run) When I had my kids at the late ages of 31, 34 and six weeks before turning 39, I didn’t think about the consequences 29 years later, when my baby would be graduating from grad school, with siblings 33 and 36. Here we are, and it is damn near impossible to keep up with… Continue reading Old Mom on Vacation
Love of her Life
(re-run) Connie was only fourteen when she went to her first dinner dance at the country club. Brad was two years older, already driving, and as handsome as could be. Connie had been smitten since the day they met at school. She had been at her locker. He had come by and said hello. She’d… Continue reading Love of her Life
Peace Corps Fail
(re-run) It was in the spring of my first year of teaching when the call came. I was at Greenwood Elementary in Greenwood, Nebraska. I had applied to the Peace Corps the year before. They had just seen my application. They wanted to fly me to Chicago for an interview that weekend. They gave me… Continue reading Peace Corps Fail
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 