Happy Flu Year
Happy 2014. Yes, it’s a week and a half into the new year and I am just now passing along my greeting. Why? Flu. Bottom line: I had a flu shot but, for some reason, it didn’t protect me like it has all...
View ArticleAlone…but not really
“I love you, have a great day! Be smart and proud of what you do!” He grumbled something at me as the rear van door slid closed, put his head down and joined the stream of grade school kids shuffling...
View ArticleHello, Spring
I knew, in my brain, that it was coming- but my heart (and toes) had a different idea. This winter was long, and cold and seemingly endless. But end it must. The first day of spring arrived. The very...
View ArticleConflicting Zones
I know what being in the zone feels like. I know the high that comes from doing things I love, of pouring myself into them and pushing my reserves until they are drained. I know what it feels like to...
View ArticleMy Green Passenger
I’ve been on a Dexter Netflixbender lately. Dexter Morgan is a serial killer with a code, a created conscience in his psychopath’s brain that helps him pick his targets- usually always someone who had...
View ArticleI had such great plans…
I love summer. Not so much a fan of the cold, spring is too muddy, and I get sad in the fall when all the leaves start to turn and I know that it will be gray and brown for months. But summer…this is...
View ArticleOOH! That’s What It Is!
“Well, this is a pretty easy one to figure out,” my doc began and then it all made sense. This crappy summer, the crappy spring, the gloomy winter- it wasn’t entirely life, it was also my chemical make...
View ArticleI Can’t Leave You, Summer!
This summer was, in a word, crappy. I dragged myself through it self-medicating with liquor and food- earning myself 10 extra pounds and a spot deeper in my hole of depression. My kids were miserable...
View ArticleI May Have a Problem
I knew I had a problem after I bought my first diaper bag in 1996. I suspected it before that when I was working and had an unusually high number of female sized brief cases, but the diaper bag...
View Article“How are you?”
Not once have I been upset by it, not once have I been embarrassed although every single time I struggle with what to say.
View ArticleI Freaking Love Voting!
Today is Election Day and I woke up giddy about it. This is a far cry from my early adulthood when voting terrified me- the process, the pressure to get it right, the chances to mess up. I remember...
View ArticleWhat Have I Done?
“I’m not doing Nanowrimo this year,” I told my writing group and every writing friend that I have. “I’m going to spend the energy and time on rewriting a story that I love and believe in. But I’ll...
View ArticleMindless Chatter Was My Jam Part One
I can’t begin to tell you where I am unless I first tell you where I have been, so let’s flip that page-a-day calendar in our brains back about four weeks to early January. It’s a bright fresh new...
View ArticleHold on Tightly and Never, Ever Let Go
When I remember the important people in my life, the one’s who have a special spot in my head and in my heart, I get flashes of pictures. Some still, some moving, most captured by my memory, some by a...
View ArticleMy Dad’s Memoirs
The following first appeared in my Kansas City Star column on April 8, 2015. I thought that it also belonged here. […]
View ArticleHappy? Father’s Day
My calendar, the card aisles and the colorful sales flyers that come with my newspaper tell me that Father’s Day is coming. Quickly. I’ve been writing family centered, slice of life columns for several...
View ArticleTell Me What You Read: Susan Vollenweider
Originally posted on Kate Macdonald :In Tell Me What You Read I interview well-kenned folk in public life about how their reading has shaped their lives, in the past and now. Susan Vollenweider, half...
View ArticleA Love Story in Three Parts
These three columns ran in The Kansas City Star over the course of three years and tell a story of life, loss and love. They are special to me and non-fiction. If you read only one thing that I have...
View ArticleHey, what’s up?
I’ve been around these blog parts long enough to know that when people post UPDATE pieces what they are saying is, “Life has gotten in the way and this site has dropped low on my priority list.” They...
View ArticleA Lesson From Other Susan
When I was 16 she was born. I didn’t know it, our paths wouldn’t cross for another 30 years. She lived in one of those middle states that New England kids like me always messed up identifying on...
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