I remember a dad handing me flowers after a school play, driving me to a speech tournament at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, cheering from the sidelines, and crying at both my graduation and my shotgun wedding. My Alzheimer's-plagued dad remembers that he's supposed to remember me, but he doesn't know my name. … Continue reading Fathers.
parenting
Breath.
Monday: One of the students in my memoir class writes about the death of her mother. My student was sixty-one when her mother passed away. Her mother had lived to the enviable age of ninety-three. A death not unexpected. And yet, in my student's piece, she writes about the sudden feeling of aloneness. "I no … Continue reading Breath.
Five Minute Mornings
I belong to a little writing group on facebook called Five Minute Mornings. My response to this morning's prompt is indicative of the reason for my internet absence, i.e., I have not gone into hiding nor declared myself a hermit. I just have a new baby. The prompt: You'll laugh, you'll cry. When he is … Continue reading Five Minute Mornings
Jittery
My whole body gets jittery when I'm angry. My hands tremble, my stomach quakes, my legs twitch. And usually such tremors end in a lengthy explosion, a twenty-minute verbal mushroom cloud with my voice as the source of the sonic boom. I am a yeller. A screamer even. When I'm pissed, you can hear it … Continue reading Jittery
Mile Marker 30
I turned 30 a few weeks ago, on Christmas Eve. I didn't think it would be a big deal. No big party. Not even just a dinner out with my husband or a few drinks with my girls. (Though drinks with my girls is currently difficult because most of my girls live in other cities. … Continue reading Mile Marker 30
Sans TV
I don't miss the television any more. We used to have cable, back when we lived in England. Before we left for the UK, my mother threw a fit, pointing out every possible negative she could manage. She does that. Always. "My friend lived in England, when her husband was stationed there. You'll start to … Continue reading Sans TV
Dear Flying Spaghetti Monster…
As if to confirm that I should, in fact, be thinking about death right now, a girl with whom I went to high school has passed away suddenly. Today. Just over a week ago, out of the blue, she started suffering seizures that seemed to be linked to a previously undetected heart arrhythmia. Her friends, … Continue reading Dear Flying Spaghetti Monster…
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