Things my Assistant Can Do
How many times a day do I think of things my assistant could do, if I had an assistant to do them? Many. Countless. Or no, they could be counted, but I would need an assistant to do so. Just lately, I’ve been wishing I…
Tag: reading
Happily Ever After
Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954) wrote a terrific poem called “Reading Mother.” It starts off, “I had a mother who read to me Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea. Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth; Blackbirds stowed in the hold beneath.” Many of his references are…
And Now, a Few Words from the Cat in the Hat
Children’s books have been very much on my mind lately. My son and his wife are expecting twins, and the invitation to her baby shower urged everyone to give a book instead of a Hallmark card. What a great idea. As a librarian, a two-story…
How to Read a Book
If anybody knows how to read a book, it should be a librarian, right? You’d think I’d be an expert. I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody has walked into whichever library I’m working at and said, “Have you read all these…
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.