The first sign that I had trouble with my elves came by way of a text message. “Thanks for thinking of us with a Christmas card, but the envelope we received was empty.” Nice one, I chided myself, recalling the frantic 6 a.m. addressing-and-stuffing spree of a few days earlier. Chicken Little and I,…
Ever gone on vacation and wished to pretend to be someone else for the week? Just really get away from it all, including yourself? My oldest daughter spent our Hawaiian vacation being a boy. Chicken Noodle, nee’ Elizabeth, most often known as Libby, announced upon arrival in Honolulu that she was now to be referred…
Awhile back, I promised I’d post this essay, which was published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Mothers and Daughters this year. It’s all about the antics which ensued when Chicken Noodle and I traveled together when she was two. Seems especially appropriate given our recent mother-daughter quest to Hawaii (which was…
Read about Jerry Scdoris in my profile of him for Oregon Quarterly
My take on House on Metolius, a lovely resort in Camp Sherman, for Travel Oregon
The new book Brave on the Page, released today, features interviews with 15 Oregon authors, one of whom is me. Thank you, editor Laura Stanfill, for producing such a fantastic collection, and for including me! Here’s more info: Brave on the Page: Oregon Writers on Craft and the Creative Life will be released on Monday, October…
Chicken Little is fearless. She simply always has been. When she was two, during a screening of one of the Ice Age flicks, and as her big sister was climbing my person in fear in a way which suggested she hoped to return to the womb, Little clambered upright on her seat and hollered,…
BendFilm Fest heading our way in two Twenty years ago, I interviewed Frank Nutter, then and now president of the Re affordable-health.info Assn. weeks! Here”s what I wrote about my favorite event for Travel Oregon.
Last night Chicken Little hit on this wacky notion that we all should sleep on the floor. When I balked, her yen turned into obsession. She started to sob and wail. “I want you to sleep on the floor with me!” Naturally, Captain Daddy, who might actually dig sleeping on the floor, wasn’t home. “Baby,…
We’re at the public pool. Mayhem as usual. I sit on a grassy hill in the shade, alternately fiddling with my phone and checking to make sure my children are still alive. They can swim now. There are lifeguards everywhere. I need not be as vigilant as so many summers before. It’s a relief…