I know. Birthdays are inevitable, and I just turned 63 today. This year is significant for me because my grandma Lilly died at 63, and I keep thinking about her. I was twelve years old when she died very suddenly, but I thought her age was old. I was young, still a kid with a […]
Month: June 2018
Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
Natalie’s book is in it’s thirtieth year. I started to read it a long time ago, but she wanted the reader to write, and I wasn’t ready to. Sounds stupid, but that was me. I have pushed back against this force inside of me that is tempered by the Bad Critic, the force that is […]
Part Dos: This Really Old House
This is the house on Filbert Street that everyone walks by without a glance. I look at it every time I walk by to get my car and each day there is a change. The balcony sags a little more, a few windows are boarded up, and one day, I saw the beige camp chair! […]
Taking Criticism
I’m in a writing workshop where online classmates and I will “exchange papers,” and try to critique them fairly. We are all grad students, but, I swear, there is always, always, someone who tries to be the English teacher, which is ridiculous because we are all English teachers. I usually struggle to find suggestions for […]
I’m Not Seeing Pretty Today.
Today is June 13, 2018, and it was the last day of my teaching career which began in the fall of 1993. I had just graduated from Millersville University with a master’s in English, and I headed to the community college to teach a night class. I was lucky enough to get one class a […]
Why Did It Happen?
More than ten years ago, I lost a friend, a talented organist. He and I worked together on an art class trying to memorize slides of art and matching them with the painter. I thought it was kind of fun, but Ken did not. He was in his last year, getting ready for his senior […]
Question of the Day
Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade ended their lives within a few days of each other. I am sad because I have walked around that rabbit hole and slipped in for a little while. The cause is often major depression, although there can be other illnesses or personal factors that cause the person to make the […]
Facebook: My Love/Hate Relationship
Aaaaaargh! Facebook! My brilliant former student convinced me to go on Facebook in 2009 after a lot of cajoling and pleading. She was graduating and wanted to keep in touch with me. (Can’t we just write emails? No?) So, I did. I played a few games and found a lot of students who friended me. […]
Evenings
I have liked evenings best since I was in college the first time. So a while ago. So why? I’m a claustrophobic introvert, so it’s not the partying. It’s the closing down part of the day. I have gotten through another one. And some days are just that. Getting Through. In the evening I can […]
Oh, It’s Just Monday, People!
Things could be worse. You could hate your job. You could have no job. You could be homeless. You could be very sick. You could be sick and tired. You could be stuck on the side of the road. You could have a broken bone. You could have lost your keys. You could have lost […]
