Once I bought a brand-new car for cash. Well, not a wad of actual bills; I wrote a big check. It was a bittersweet moment, since the money came from my mom’s estate, but I figured she and Dad would have been happy that I […]
There we were, flying down Interstate 94, listening to “Car Talk” on satellite radio. If you’ve never heard Tom and Ray Magliozzi talk about cars and car repairs, you’re missing out. Not only are they funny, they know a lot about cars, and genuinely seem […]
After retiring from a column-writing gig lasting eleven years and yielding over 300 personal essays, I find I still have something to say. My thoughts range far and wide, and occasionally deep, on subjects including being an Iowan who misses Colorado; surviving marital violence; raising an amazing daughter and an equally amazing son; being justifiably angry about the world “these days;” writing poetry and plays; wondering if I’ll get Alzheimer’s like my mom and her two brothers; wanting to write about my twin granddaughters without sounding all Hallmark-y; fixing OCD-ish food; making sense of pants that come in shorts / crops / ankle-grazing / bootcut; being a librarian in public, academic, archival, and medical libraries; waiting 46 years to attend my high school reunion; having a gorgeous garden I can’t take care of; seeing a shaman; loving good men despite all the bad ones; and trying to wrest a little joy from life despite an 11-year-and-counting chronic migraine.