When I turned 72, I used this same "gratitude" blog title. Musing over the past year and a half since Marv died, I can write with the same sentiment today. To catch up, I spent Christmas in Aruba with my daughter and family. You may remember we were there two years ago also, just a …
Tag: humor
Buses, Pickpockets, and Crowbars
My trip from the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City coasted along from the Iowa hotel, to the airport shuttle to Cedar Rapids, to the flight to Chicago, and on to the L train headed to the Loop. Problem number one began with the announcement of L track repairs. After settling comfortably onto my …
Growing Older – On Turning 77
“Can I help you?“ a butcher yelled from a packaged meat display. A few feet away, I was standing, clueless, in front of an impressive array of glass-encased chunks of red meat. “Yes, I guess,” I bellowed back. When he was situated across from me, I asked, “How many pounds of a chuck roast do …
Grace Notes #13: A Time to Keep Mum
If you're ever in a situation like mine, do NOT tell your daughter you have a few days free before your winter schedule of activities begin. I did, and I paid! My so-called free days were a recent Friday and Saturday; I was already babysitting for her that Saturday night, so I was looking forward …
Grace Notes #9: Trip to Israel and Jordan
Six weeks after Marv’s death, an unsolicited email arrived from Road Scholar announcing a trip to Israel and Jordan leaving in two months. Immediately, I wanted to go. It seemed like a special idea to go to Jesus’ sites the year that Marv went to heaven. I reasoned a trip that soon would give me …
Write Along with Me…
The fun is yet to be! Come with me, in spirit, to the Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I’m getting ready to attend this retreat next week. And oh, what fun it is to prepare. I want to remind you, as I’ve done before, that your words will …
Glue, Glitter, and Green Paper Plates
I should have known I was in trouble as I sat down in my grandson’s kindergarten room ready to serve as a room parent assistant for my daughter for whatever party this was. For starters, I don’t fit on kindergartner chairs. For another, I’d taught college-age students for a reason. For yet another, I’ve never …
Flu as Time Waster
Not in a long time have I so effectively wasted time. You’d think being grounded for a week with the flu—the coughing kind, not the other—would open about ninety-six hours of time to catch up on sedentary tasks like reading the accumulating journals at your couch-side, sending a few cards out to cheer others, cleaning …
Pie Crust
“It doesn’t have to be anything big,” humorist/essayist David Sedaris said recently at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. He said many more good things about writing, like it can be about something "annoying" or "humbling", but it was dark where I sat in my half-price seat in the nosebleed section, so I managed to scribble …
In Search of the Perfect Dress
“You must love shopping,” a friend said at lunch. She’d asked what I was wearing to my granddaughter’s wedding and, before she could stop me, I told her the long story. You see, I love to shop for clothes. Years ago when I was teaching nursing, I learned that the most cheerful pick-me-up on wintry …
Write Along with Me 