In the immortal words of Moxy Fruvous.

It's band season again.

Portland's One More Time Around Again Marching Band. So now I've given my anonymity away away, within 500 people.

That's right, 500 people. It's awesome. And it's loud.

We practice in a middle school cafeteria. There are drums. Drums! Lots of them! My whole body vibrates,… Read full post »

Ten pounds. Something of a milestone. Two sugar sacks.

It's disappointing, though, because there is so much farther to go. I want to look in the mirror and see the person I remember, not this fat woman hiding in my skin. I want it now. Not in six months or… Read full post »

These are my new best friends.

What this weight loss journey is teaching me is:

1. I can't estimate.

2. I lie to myself all the time.

I can't estimate to save my soul. I have no idea how much a portion is if I… Read full post »

And no, I'm not talking about the kind of beans you eat.

This is my kitchen windowsill. I had the jars already--I just like them. There they sat, collecting dust. When I started this weight loss project, and decided to get serious about it,… Read full post »

OS blogger Sarah Cavanaugh has posted an excellent Weight Loss Journal, and she's inspired me. So here goes.

I won't go into the history too much... I weigh too much, it crept on, eventually I couldn't ignore it. Nuff said. I called it baby weight for a long time,… Read full post »

My very good friend and her husband live in Hong Kong. He took a job there a year ago, they packed up their baby and their stuff and vamoosed. We still work together via Skype and email.

And we have their pet snake until they move home. (He's actually… Read full post »

1990.

Southeast Portland, Oregon.

One newly graduated no-longer-college-student, living alone in her first real apartment. 

I had a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen in a funky 1920s brick building. All mine. No housemates, no studios. A real apartment, all for me. I had… Read full post »

Of all the holidays in the colorful Catholic pantheon of celebrations, Easter is the one that left me cold. I haven't been a Catholic since my sophomore year in college, but the feelings of Easter still leave me questioning, sad, and slightly uncomfortable.

The weeks before are Lent, that time of… Read full post »

I think we all want to be someone else.

In reality, I'm a suburban mom with kids in middle school. I weigh too much, I have a penchant for mom jeans and sweatshirts. When I'm not working or folding laundry, I spend my time driving to various sports practices and music… Read full post »

Late at night
After everyone's asleep
I spread cream cheese on bread
Slice strawberries
Spread peanut butter and jam
Or ham
And nestle them in plastic boxes.

I find bags of cookies
And fill the water bottles.

They ought to do it themselves.
They ought.
But I always forget
In the rush of homework-teeth-shower-b… Read full post »

Tadpole had a project for school to do a one-week trash and recycling audit.

My husband calls me Queen of Recycling. I'm more than a bit wound up about it. We use cloth napkins, plastic boxes for sandwiches, reusable grocery bags, and I recycle everything I can. Even shoes. (Nike… Read full post »

I have a dog.

He's a purebred rescue mutt. We think lab and maybe border collie. Or cattle dog. Or something.

He has issues. We got him at a year old, scared out of his mind, afraid of everything, but a loving sweet nature under the fear.… Read full post »

I stayed home today, and helped Tadpole with her homework. Quiet, peaceful, rain outside, fire inside. Husband and son were out all day.  Tadpole is a kind of house-mouse of a kid anyway. She's learning, slowly, how to not let homework pile up. She got her project done, and we went… Read full post »

Kinda oxymoronic, eh?

But it did.

I could have gotten pregnant oh so many years ago, with my high school boyfriend. I would have been showing in my graduation robe, with that silly gold Honor Student cord meaning nothing, as I settled down in my nothing town, with bills, diapers, and… Read full post »

About noon on Thursday, pain stabbed through my kneecap.

Oh crap! What's that?

I tried to shake it out. Walk it out. It wouldn't shake.

Damn!

My mother has terrible knees. She's 76 now, with two artificial knees. My mother has not ever been the picture of vigorous or active. She… Read full post »

My son is a fencer.

It's a weird sport, all white stretchy pants, funny hats, bendy swords, and French words for everything.

But that's not why I've come to love it.

School has always been hard for my son. He's passionately social, too social. Like a lot of kids with… Read full post »

Last week, I posted the view from my window for Emily's open call.

Today, I had more friends come to visit, and I thought I'd share them with you.

It's still raining here. Cold, wet, and dark. But these guys make me laugh all day. I waded out into the back… Read full post »

In light of the current cruise ship disaster off of Italy, I thought I'd re-post my musings on cruise travel from my one and only cruise last year.

I know some people love them. I just don't. Here's why.

Read full post »

My office window looks out the side of my house, at the neighbor's house. No great shakes as views go. Suburban cedar fence. Boring.

So I added some enticements to attract friends. This view is from a rainy day last winter.

  Read full post »

The first part of this story starts here.

So we had our quiet Christmas at home, presents waiting until Dad came home from work. I let the kids pick what they wanted for breakfast--fried ham for one, a bowl of coveted, once-a-year Stupid Cereal (sugar-covered neon-colored things) for the other. Coffe… Read full post »

Our christmases have all been like clockwork. Always Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma's, with the china and the silver and the crown roast of pork. Home, kids in pajamas, and to bed, nights up late stuffing stockings and wrapping. One year assembling a play kitchen, one year building a train table.… Read full post »

I suffered the indignity of trying to find a Christmas dress.

Entire Canadian forests' worth of fashion magazine print (and pictures) have been devoted to the Little Black Dress. The staple, we're told, of a woman's wardrobe. Except that I don't have one. And I'm not exactly little any more. Neither… Read full post »

Torman's excellent blog post today made me think. What are my Christmas wishes? Something as poignant and beautiful as Torman's wish for 20 more years with his wife?

The last couple of months, since September, really, have seen every spare minute of my life supervising middle school homework. Times t… Read full post »

I had 18,000 pieces of paper in my living room this weekend. The number is slowly dwindling as the volunteers come to get their share. They're going out, in neatly labeled stacks, making their way from trunks of cars to school secretaries, to teacher's inboxes, to kids' backpacks, and home, to… Read full post »