There’ve been long gaps between my posts. I suppose that reflects the long blank spaces in my mind. Almost like broken bridges leaving a traveler stranded at the gorge, staring down the chasm and thinking, “Hmmm well, what now?” I had to explain to a student what “existential” meant the other day. Go ahead, try…
Category: Writing
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English Things I Miss, Part 2: On Biscuits, and Such
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I had pancakes for breakfast yesterday and I took it totally for granted. God, how quickly we forget the hard times. Back in the day, (when I was living on nothing but beer and chicken-flavored potato chips), finding any kind of American baked good was like a treasure hunt. I was reminded of this when…
Techno-Love
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Or, On How to Avoid Becoming a Lesbian at College My friend, Frances, and I have married the same man. Frances: Alex is bobsledding in Lillehammer. He’s a bit nervous. Me: Why? He’s loves to ski black diamonds in brightly colored one-piece snowsuits. Frances: The first time they go down in a big bathtub thing…
The Parenting Apocolypse
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Wow there is SO much “content” out there in the World (Wide Web) to inform, amuse, and berate today’s parent. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Some of it is actually useful. Such as the answers to basic questions like “Which end is up, again?” “Will it ever stop pooping?” and the classic follow up,…
On Finding a Voice
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I have a tendency to slip into foul language when little people are asleep. It’s the side effect of a past life working in the restaurant business where half the employees never escape a room below 110 degrees and only hear the words: “You screwed my order up again” as the nearest thing to praise.…
Kentucky Fried Christmas
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After a visit to Colin’s work, we were all famished for lunch today. Nothing says special holiday like a big bucket of KFC. We got the family 12 piece meal and just about devoured all of it together. Dining on fast food on Christmas eve always reminds me of my own childhood. Ever so often…
My Two Front Teeth… My Two Front Teeth
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That’s the song playing in my head at 5 a.m. over and over. Just the refrain. Our brains have a huge capacity for self-torture. Why not after all? When we are going day to day through life and hardly feeding them at all, why shouldn’t they wake us up at 5 a.m. with the random…
Status Update…
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I am not sure what I am supposed to say anymore. I feel guarded, though what I am guarding isn’t tangible. The woman at the food pantry was so frustrated. She didn’t have anything kind to say. She didn’t know me and she still yelled at me. The happiest moment was still in the snow,…
Less and Less to Say
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I am writing more poems these days. My thoughts are interrupted, and dreamlike. They fly and tumble like monkeys swinging from branches. These days, I have less less less to say, more times repeated,either writhing or couched in metaphor. I want the eavesdroppers to feel lost, yet satiated, all the same. I am using rhetorical devices…
Robert Sean Leonard’s Voice
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At 6:15 a.m., in the dark today, a voice came down through the wires and I felt it. I recognized it. It was the poetry of my youth, the angst I can only recall theoretically now. It was carrying on a sedan chair the missed opportunities (what could those be?) that I imagine each day dissolve into…
On 6 p.m., Friday… These Days
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These days, 6 p.m. Friday isn’t just the end of a week. It’s the sloughing off of another bit of heartache. It’s the another step up the mountain we are climbing, all of us in the weird extended family. And it is feeling the loose pebbles slithering under our shoes. On Friday, 6 p.m., I…
On Not Celebrating Halloween
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This will be the Year Without Jack-o-Lanterns. For religious reasons (not our own), Colin and I will be taking a hiatus from Halloween this year. “If [we] believe fully in the omnipotence of God, then concern about witches, ghosts and goblins, and things that go bump in the night, is misplaced. It is God alone…
Things Going By.
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Here’s what’s spinning around, around so much I cant seem to keep myself still for a second to write one post per topic: 1. Ear infection, mine not theirs 2. Lonely, but too busy to feel it. 3. Harvest Festival coming. What am I doing? 4. School looming… Teach and mother at the same time.…
A Send off From Momcentral.com
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Note: Version three of this blog post I am a huge admirer of Stacy DeBroff. This woman, the CEO of Momcentral.com, is a marketing genius and a fantastic business model built around one of her own passions– being a mom. And yeah, I’m a little jealous. She’s wildly successful, spending many early mornings with Matt…
Defining Blogger Integrity
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NPR visited BlogHer 2009 in Chicago this week and raised the issue of blogger ethics that I’ve been ranting about for years now (can you believe I’ve been blogging for YEARS? How weird is that?) The question is: If a blogger is receiving a product from a company to “review,” what incentive (if you haven’t…
