Have you picked up some pandemic habits you’re not sure you want? I talk to myself. Out loud. I consider, I argue, I vent, and I’m always surprised when people look at me strangely. “Oh, haha was I saying something?” Big mask covered eye smile. I was at the grocery store and started an intense
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Never Too Late to Be Schooled
Wanna be schooled by an entire group of women you’re leading? That’s what happened to me when I innocently asked my Starfish Mothers Sphere the following question, prompted by reading Brene Brown’s Rising Strong. . “Do you think people are doing the best they can?” . I was in the “hell no” camp. People can
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Absolutely Afraid of the Dark
By the time I was born, my parents were ready to get on with their lives. They went out a lot. It made me nervous and paranoid to be left alone in the suddenly big and echo-y house. We didn’t have an alarm system and we lived on a quiet, deserted street. Even with the
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Unfortunately Froggie Goes Camping
I’ve taken a lot of trips with my sister. Some of those trips were fabulous and some were an adventure I’m hoping never to repeat. . On one trip we were driving across country in a Westphalia VW camper van with her now ex-husband Charles. He’d never been to Mexico, so we nipped down to
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Email Fungus Among Us
Why does your email reproduce mysteriously until one day you find you don’t even know how many addresses you have? . I created my first email account with Yahoo. Seemed to work fine except friends weren’t paying attention and kept misspelling it. Result: I didn’t get the messages and they were mad at me thinking
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Fabulous! You’re looking absolutely fabulous!
When my daughter Dakota came to visit, we went for our traditional manicure, pedicure and lunch date. We’re not really girly girls but we do like having our toes and fingernails looking groomed and snazzy instead or snagged, bitten, broken and neglected: our usual sad state. . For those of you unaware, manicures and pedicures
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Interrupting the Play
I have a confession to make. I can be a bit of a troublemaker. It’s put me in some dicey and some hilarious situations. When I was in college, I went to a lot of the campus theatrical productions. It was super cheap, usually good entertainment and a place to explore new ideas. Occasionally there
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Playing the Copa
When my friend Michele and I went to Brazil, we didn’t really know what to expect. It was a wonderful experience and we learned and relearned things. Like… what it’s like to be in a country where you don’t speak the language and you go out to eat; how we Americans see race and color
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The Stumble Inn
My sister Mary and her husband Angus, fluent speakers of Portuguese, went to Brazil for months every year. One year they asked if I’d like to meet them there. I was thrilled. My friend Michele asked me, “Can I come too?” Next thing I know, we’re booking tickets. I think we got 15 different shots
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Aliceville Breakfast
We were in Aliceville, Alabama at a blues festival and we were hungry. . Half my family is from the South and when I get back down there the deep southern comes out in my accent. Suddenly I remember phrases from long ago visits with the grandparents and start dropping endings and drawling my words
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Convince me. Do Deer Really Have Brains?
When you live in the country 30 minutes from town, there’s a good chance something will leap, fly, scurry, slither or saunter across the road in front of you. Deer are a real problem. Coming home one evening, I was just crossing an area of open fields when a huge buck leapt out in front
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Yikes! Being present. A philosophical discussion at Starbucks
I put in a mobile order for a tall soy latte and egg bites at Starbucks. Usually I walk right in and pick up my stuff, but today I had to wait. The barista asked me my name and when I said, “Zain”, the guy next to me said, “And are you sane too?” Two
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