Scenes from our camping vacation to the Redwoods, also the celebration of our ten-year wedding anniversary. — (As we greet a blackberry bramble enveloped in fog and mislabeled by California State Parks as our campsite) Me: Honey! It’s where I always dreamed we’d awake on our ten-year anniversary! — Chicken Noodle: I am afraid all…
I went to a writing conference over the weekend. The chickens stayed home with Captain Daddy. Mysterious incidents ensued. Each time I braced myself and called home, not one person screamed at me from the other end. No one called me screaming. Not once. In fact, at one point, someone sounding a lot like Captain…
Chicken Little on camping: “Mom, do you think nature is beautiful?” “Yes. I think nature is very beautiful.” “Well, nature is not beautiful to me. Stupid trees.”
A piece I wrote about Summer Lake is on the Travel Oregon blog. Click here to see more of my Travel Oregon posts…
Chicken Noodle’s obsession with death continues. Here are some of the latest utterances from my five-year-old Mistress of Doom. On the couch, cuddling Chicken Noodle: Mom, I don’t want to grow up. Me: I know, baby. But you know what’s the best part? CN: I am going to get old and die? Me: Umm, no,…
Long overdue for an update to my blog profile. I’ve been confusing people with the whole book burning thing. So here’s me, modestly refreshed: Me: mother, wife and writer watching 40 climb the front steps like a peddler pushing time and me with nowhere to hide. The writer part used to come first,…
Barry Louis Polisar emailed me yesterday. He saw my post here yesterday and sent me a message to tell me he’s glad he cracks me up. It was like my childhood hero turned up on my front porch. I stared at his name in my in-box while my brain did spastic flip-flops between 1978, when…
My mother ran away today She walked right out the door, Packed her tooth brush and pajamas Said, “I can’t take any more.” She said that she was tired, She said she had her fill Of cooking our meals, washing our clothes And cleaning up all our spills. She said she’d write us letters With…
A couple of weeks ago while I was tutoring at the college, my blood sugar crashed. I emptied my wallet of quarters and headed for the vending machine, wondering if I would find any sugar-free, protein-laden options. Yay—Smokehouse almonds. $1.25. I plunked my five quarters in and watched the little metal corkscrew arm make its…