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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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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Maybe Zombies are Just Sleep Deprived
For some reason I’m not sleeping. That is, I am sleeping but in only 1-2 hour increments. I’ve tried melatonin, virgin hot toddies, sleep meditations, 1.5Hz binaural beats specifically for sleep. Still every hour or so I’m up, wide awake. I’ve tried relaxing all the parts of my body, one by one, placing a heated
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Brief History of The O2R Blues Band and Me
Let me tell you an origin story. A blues band origin story. What did you do when you were a kid that you still do now? For me it’s singing and loving music. My sister taught me St. Louis Blues when I was 5 but I was singing before that. I know lyrics from musicals,
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Mom and Nako the Snake
I once lived in an apartment with 3 other women, all of us under 5’4” which we considered important. These women are still my lifelong friends although only two of us live near one another. Still, we are all wrapped up in one another’s history. These were great times. We had a lot of dinner
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Bruce attempts the dip
Mom: (phone rings 5 times) Hello? Me: Good morning! Mom: Who is this?! Me: (hurt and kinda pissed) it’s me, Mom Mom: Who’s me? Me: Zain. It’s Zain your daughter. How are you? Mom: Oh. What’s new? Me: Well, I had a birthday yesterday and didn’t hear from you and Dad. Mom: Huh. Well happy
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Chad the birddog: Up to more tricks
Our tradition was to sit on my folk’s back patio in warm weather at 5pm for happy hour. Dad rigged up a sound system and played classical music and opera. It was relaxing sitting there in the balmy evening air talking, eating mixed nuts and having a cocktail or a soda to strains of La
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She was crawl resistant
My daughter didn’t want to crawl. The pediatrician told me that it was important for babies to crawl. It contributes to their balance, problem solving, and coordination. But my girl was crawl resistant. She was dead set on going from tummy skydiving position straight to climbing. I would get down on the floor and crawl.
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We wanted to party and listen to the blues
We made a pilgrimage to Aliceville, Alabama for The Freedom Blues Festival In 2006. We arrived at the only motel in town after a long and tiring drive. The owner greeted us with our towels but eyed us suspiciously when Michele asked for two. After some persistent arguing, he gave in, handing out gauze thin
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How many stitches did you get?
When we were kids, parents were the exact opposite of helicopter parents. After breakfast they told you to go outside and play. They expected you to get dirty and not die. They warned (read: threatened) you about a whole lot of things not to do. You didn’t tell them if you played in the street,
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People who shop on Christmas Eve are a different breed
Long ago I lived with John in Ann Arbor. He believed in buying holiday gifts on Christmas Eve at 5pm at K-Mart, “for the rush of it.” I hadn’t ever considered heading to K-Mart on Christmas Eve but I was ready for adventure! K-Mart was strewn with cars parked at odd angles due to the
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Pipe organs! Costumes! Party!
Years ago on Halloween we’d go to the IU Auditorium’s Pipe Organ Film Party to watch a silent horror film while Dennis James played the enormous pipe organ. The pipe organ tunes were written for the theaters’ organists to play to create suspense, romance, and key the villain or hero in the silent films. I
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