It was a whirlwind. It was a weekend that started on a Wednesday. It was my birthday, and the 24th anniversary of our 1st date, and a visit from my parents. It was meals at favorite restaurants, and being sung the Happy Birthday song, and a new coat. It was homemade potato chips with gorgonzola […]
Read moreHis birthday was the day after Christmas, so we were all home from school. The day was a cold and grey one; I don’t remember if we had snow, but we had that feeling of the day after Christmas: that feeling of it’s being over, the feeling of anticlimax and of all the surprises behind […]
Read moreHeedless Perhaps we love the shore because the debris here could not be ours no matter how hard our lives. Or because the long shelf of land continues on under the water so even here at the edge of the world the edge is uncertain. Perhaps we love that the water rises to uncertain levels […]
Read moreDuring the few years we lived in Japan when I was a child, I learned to be afraid of the wind. Some of it was the fault of Jeff, a neighborhood boy one year older than I and a teller of tall tales. But much of it was due to the wind itself. The wind […]
Read moreThis is not how it should be. Not, at any rate, what I would have it. I am sick. So sick. On a weekend. It started at about 11 on Friday night, not long after the last of my 9th grade students left our house and our end-of-year party, the party during which 22 out […]
Read moreWe’re coming to the end now and no one could possibly argue otherwise. Though the children have two weeks left (not really, not exactly, as their first day is two weeks from yesterday), I have only tomorrow and the weekend, and then I’m back in it–back in the school schedule that fills my days and […]
Read moreIt’s only Wednesday. I’m not all that tired. Not Yet. Maybe verbal blunders aren’t signs of fatigue. Maybe they’re just verbal blunders, or signs of old age. But when I talked with my Alaskan sister this afternoon, and when we ended our conversation, and when I expressed my love to her family, this is what […]
Read moreWe lost our dear cat, Minnie, of 15 years in September 2007. It had been my understanding that cats could live to be upwards of 18 years old, so I wasn’t really ready At All for her to die. It was very sad for all of us. And we didn’t even think about getting a […]
Read moreI’ve been reflecting just a wee bit lately on Christmas letters. Yes, it’s coming on that time again, and once again– as I do every year– I have hopes of sending mine out early. We’ll see about that. Last year’s Christmas letter was a reflection on what is “ideal.” Our culture creates it for us […]
Read more“Fool! Don’t you see now that I could have poisoned you a hundred times had I been able to live without you?” -found on a greeting card; attributed to Cleopatra VII
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