Inspired by Ande Bliss.

 

My father, husband and son are all blessed with photographic memories, which is most irritating to those of us who are normal.  Playing “Jeopardy” with them is enough to inspire heavy drinking.

I’ve never had a good memory for some things&mdash… Read full post »

This morning my son and his girlfriend of 18 months broke up. He says it was mutual.

With my mother's intuition, I knew it was coming. I could just feel it in my bones, as surely as I feel my arthritic left knee when a weather change is about.  Yesterday at… Read full post »

When they moved to Pine Haven Drive, they were the young married couple on the street.  Both working, taking the kids to daycare and soccer and ballet lessons.  They were thrilled to have a two-car garage and a large metal swingset, with a fort, in the back.

Now the kids… Read full post »

The signing of today’s debt ceiling bill doesn’t make me anymore optimistic for the future of our county.  Granted we may have avoided total collapse, but pardon me, aren’t we  just kicking the can down the road more?

The stock market isn’t encouraged.  All the/… Read full post »

My sweetie lived with his friend Bob and two girls MaryJane and Cherie in college.  Their apartment was typical cheap college housing.  And cheap it was.  The two bedrooms featured metal bunk beds, like those in WWII barracks. 

Bob's girlfriend Lita was there most of the tim… Read full post »

 

 _{photo wordpress.com}

That summer was twenty-nine years ago and still I think about it all the time, like a big elephant that is always in the room.  

The four of us girls had been friends forever, most of our parents were friends, and even some of our grandparen… Read full post »

We used to be close friends  Our kids took swimming lessons together when they were toddlers.  We called each other all the time, never missed a kid's birthday party, went out for sushi, cleaned each other's houses when we moved, made soup when the other was sick, sat with relatives if… Read full post »

I'm afraid my brother is an alcoholic.  When his wife left him, he quit drinking so much and started exercising.  But in the last few months I've noticed some signs, telling me he can't talk to me in the evenings because he doesn't like to talk in a bar. (We're in… Read full post »

Have things changed for women? 

I was one of the first generation of women for whom having a job and children was the norm.

Not so the Greatest Generation.

My mother received a college degree from a good university.  She worked for several years as a second grade teacher.  She… Read full post »

Many in the Baby Boomer ("I did not inhale") generation believe that marijuana should be legalized.

I'm not in that camp.

California's Prop 19 wants to legalize pot, but has no real regulation behind it.  Arizona and South Dakota appear to be next.

My concerns are: driving, employment screening,… Read full post »

I have three friends on a slippery slope  to the cliff of economic disaster. 

 Darnetta lost her job almost two years ago.  She is in her mid-fifties,  gorgeous, smart, ambitious, and the bearer of a diploma from a good private school.  Her husband owns a daycare center… Read full post »

Sometimes I hate this old house.  We thought by this time we would have sold this house, and been in something new.  With the housing market the way it is, that ain't gonna happen.

We've lived here most of two decades now, and we've replaced the heating system, most of the… Read full post »

 In the movie version of Oklahoma, the legendary dancer Charlotte Greenwood plays Aunt Eller.  Aunt Eller talks tough to her niece Laurie Williams just as her new husband Curley is about to be tried for the murder of Poor Judd ("Poor Judd is dead, a candle lights his head, he's/… Read full post »

This morning my husband killed a spider that crossed between us on the end table as we read our newspapers.

There are four of us in "The Posse," which is what Kay calls us.  We worked together twenty-plus years ago and have retained a friendship.  I am called Nora, and I'm… Read full post »

Legal immigration is the vehicle that brought many of us to America. My grandfather's grandfather arrived in a midwestern city from Germany in April 1865, where he reportedly saw Lincoln's funeral train pass.

Illegal immigration is a huge problem for Americans, weighing down our public resou…

Read full post »

Less than a stone's throw from the National Mall, a handful of protesters toted in their big guns today on national park lands across the Potomac.  Due to a change in federal law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year, national parks now allow open carrying of weapons.

How the… Read full post »

Spring.  A month ago, the perky yellow jonquils pushed out of a waning blanket of snow.  Then the azaleas celebrated the spring equinox by outdoing the jonquils in vibrant color swatches.  Now a  dogwood fills the sky with luscious pink blooms, and our Japanese maples ha… Read full post »