My daughters have always had an amazing ability to make friends based on the following characteristic.  When we go out in public or to a party/gathering they see someone of their age and literally say, “That girl is seven-years-old like me.  I will go tell her my name and color with/… Read full post »

I usually am a reader but not so much this summer due to multiple distractions.  My mind is rather fragmented due to health, personal, and professional issues so three books of short essays have been the only reading material.  I can only digest about ten pages at a time

The first… Read full post »

I spent the better part of the last hour dealing with a fake virus created by people in some other country.  It occurred to me to go to System Restore after noticing the lack of subject/verb agreement in the fake error messages.  I took the graduate reading courses in Spanish, Italian,/… Read full post »

I have never seen any footage of the planes flying into the Twin Towers on 9/11.

At first this was not on purpose.

On 9/11 I was in my office without a TV or any kind of media prepping to teach composition classes at a university three weeks into a new… Read full post »

I try not to turn on the news and did not for much of this summer.  However, the appalling racist letter/parody posted by a prominent Tea Party leader (well he used to be) recalled the Know Nothing party of the 1850s.  I learned about the Know Nothing party from Ms./… Read full post »

I was doing just fine until I saw the moving van in front of a neighborhood house while walking Buddy last night.  Hard to get to sleep last night.

Tyler is off for a 10-day visit with her father.  She is excited about going to the beach house and running down/… Read full post »

Sigh. 

One of the main tasks composition teachers are asked to tackle is to teach critical thinking to students living in the dirty bathwater that is the 24/7 news cycle.  They come to class on day one already dirty. 

Richard Jewell

For many years I used the following article… Read full post »

6 a.m. in the lake house when I wake up.  T’s pillow is still warm. 

 I hear him dive into the water.  He has a perfect swimmer’s body from swimming across the lake and back every morning.  The air is chilly in Hot Springs this morning.  I throw on one of… Read full post »

I gave up television at the beginning of the year because during the week I was working all the time or taking care of my daughter.  I had no time for it and it was a significant expense each month.  Most weekends when my youngest daughter was with her father I/… Read full post »

My former husband was a sports editor for small town newspapers in Arkansas.  He would get press passes for Razorback games where we photographed the action from the sidelines.  I had never paid much attention to football.  The up close and personal reality and illusion of serio/… Read full post »

Sounds like being an astronaut and having to re-adjust to gravity.

That is what Tyler’s daycare center director said when I explained the following.  He rarely waxes poetic but nailed it with that description.  He had expressed sincere concern about my health since I appear to… Read full post »

If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good,… Read full post »

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Darn.

I saw Louis CK at the Improv last year and was impressed. 

Probably had a little crush on him.  That sure won’t pan out now ;0)

The first two episodes of Louie which is Louis CK’s quasi reality show frankly creep me out.

CK deals primarily with cultural commonplaces… Read full post »

I feel guilty.

Many many loving people have prayed for me over the past month or so, included my name on the prayer list of their church services even though I am a stranger from cyberspace, sacrificed time from their friends and family to put prayer in action caring for… Read full post »

I ran all night long.  Looked like I was sleeping as I do most of the time out of necessity.  I want out of this bed and my subconscious is doing its best to get me there.Instead I was dreaming about track practice from my freshman year at McLean High School… Read full post »

There are few places in which one encounters more crazy people than graduate school.  There are reasons for this.  When one walks into a graduate classroom either as teacher or student one is surrounded by people who always made A grades and who are accustomed to being the smartest person i… Read full post »

Several others claimed the MOMO Jackson Pollock room as their favorite place as well when I posted yesterday.  I gotcha with today’s favorite place which is more than likely all mine.

Dogpatch USA is not one of my favorite places.  However, in order to place today’s favorite pla/… Read full post »

Still sitting in this room recuperating and about to do this thing called work.   I wrote about Frankie's Tiki Bar as my favorite place so here is my second favorite place.

The Jackson Pollock room at MOMA.  I would be happy just moving in and sleeping on one of the benches at… Read full post »

One of the many blessings in my life is that I live 10 miles from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando.  The professional and dedicated physicians, nurses, and everybody else who works there have saved my life twice over the past three years.  Being told “you have this particula… Read full post »

The very thin blonde female surgeon astounded me yesterday in parting orders when she said, “You are very thin and must be still and keep your torso crunched for another week so you do not tear your abdominal stitches.”  I have not been “very thin” in a long time so I/… Read full post »

I spent two of the past six years of my life in my bedroom resting in order to get well.   Once from the first round of cancer and once from complications due to being too damn old to be pregnant but the baby was lovely so it was worth it.  Luckily/… Read full post »

http://www.frankiestikiroom.com/

During difficult medical procedures, long stretches in a hospital bed etc. quite often health professionals ask me to close my eyes and imagine myself somewhere else at some other time.  Then they give me very strong drugs hoping that when th… Read full post »