My neurologist recently started me on a drug that’s supposed to help suppress my cursed daily migraines. As with all such concoctions, this one comes with an alarming sheaf of side effects. Among them are weakness, dizziness, confusion, difficulty concentrating, tingling of the hands/feet, weight…

Some people have trouble leaving home. It’s not that they don’t want to see the canals of Venice or the art museum in Des Moines. It’s just that, well, they can’t seem to get out the door without taking everything but the kitchen sink. My…

Because I’m a writer, some people think I keep a journal. Those people are wrong. Despite youthful stabs at diary keeping that never got much past “I wish I hadn’t cut my hair,” I’ve never enjoyed the kind of navel gazing the act seems to…

As much as I like Dubuque, I love to get out of town. Day trips with some kind of loose agenda – a play to see in Spring Green, a book to search for in Madison, a Thai restaurant to try in Davenport – those…

We went out for breakfast the other Saturday at downtown Manna Java. My French toast was delicious, but I had trouble focusing. I kept getting distracted by this woman across the room. She had on the cutest shoes. I’ve never gone up to a stranger…

Almost every morning, I do something really silly. I click on this website, www.bio-chart.com, and see what my bio-rhythms are for the day. Now, I’m an intelligent person and I know this is just for sport, about as accurate as a daily horoscope for telling…

Do you remember the game called Six Degrees of Separation? Wikipedia defines it as “the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they…

My friend Lulu (not her real name), who is young enough to be my daughter, had a dismal time recently. She and her husband hosted both sets of their parents for a Christmas Eve meal. She moaned to me later that they didn’t make enough…

A copy of Life magazine from July 26, 1948, landed in my lap the other day, and I read it with glee from cover to cover. It was a gift from my husband’s sister, a peek into life (with a small “l”) from the very…

We opened up the unit when he died, revealing to the sun a poor man’s cache. This homeless man, who loved me once, or tried, kept all his treasure here, and all his trash. If he had known his end would come so soon, would…

I’ve been reminded lately by someone near and dear to me that I talk about perfection a bit too much. I guess this makes me a perfectionist, and he wants to know where I got this – um – imperfection. My answer would have to…

I got a really funny letter in the mail last week. Not ha-ha funny, but the kind that makes you yelp in exasperation. Here’s how it began: “Thank you for your recent application for the L.L. Bean Credit Card issued by Barclays Bank Delaware. We…

Piercing the juniper berry, I think of gin, that first swig I took in the kitchen with him. Lying on the floor, alone in the house for the night, homework done or unattended, we performed our own science experiment. If I lie down on top…

Bread and Salt A one-act play Performed February 9, 2002 as part of “Responding to Terrorism,” a project funded in part by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs’ “American Spirit” grant program     Characters   April Madison – mid-30’s, dressed in a bright, ethnic…

“Tundra plants are fragile. Please stay on paths.” – sign at summit of Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park We drive up where the summer meets the snow, where tundra grows in view of mountain peaks. The cold is shocking, from a sky so…

Soldier’s Heart a one-act play Third-Place, 2000 Dubuque International One-Act Play Contest   Characters:      Dana Sullivan, late 30’s — early 40’s Andy Kenyon, late 30’s — early 40’s   Year:   Early-mid 1990’s.   Setting:  Dana Sullivan’s living room.  Sofa, chair, bookcase, coffee table, stereo,…