Category Coping
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
Angela had gorgeous thick blonde hair. Actually, it seemed to consist of many shades of blonde. Sunlight played with its gentle waves, creating a luminous swath that trailed past her shoulders. Once, back in high school, she got a permanent – remember those? – and her head resembled a sheep’s fleece. When we were kids, […]
Breadcrumbing
By now, everyone’s heard the term, “breadcrumbing.” It means someone who leads you on, texts you with vague plans but never manages to solidify them, drops out of touch for long periods of time only to show back up when they suspect you’re losing interest. It’s a common thing, made even more so with the […]
Undying Love
Angela and I sat together in her hospital room, she in the bed and me perched on a chair. She’d just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The surgeon gave her one and a half years to live. A tube, protruding from her nose, drained the contents of her stomach. Her eyes stared straight ahead, shock […]
Transitions
No, the above picture isn’t me. But it seems to be a characterization of a woman of a certain age…although, I’m not certain what her age is. I had a big birthday a little while ago. I turned overnight from a middle-ager into a senior citizen. How can that be? I don’t feel any different. […]
The Jitters, Or, The Nightmares Cometh
It happens every now and again. Sometimes I have a bad day at work. Or a mistake I made that I can’t let go. Something’s looming on the horizon and I obsess about it. Or my brain simply won’t shut up, no matter what I do or try not to dwell upon. It’s a case […]
It’s Complicated
Son came to us when he was eight years old. We adopted him from foster care. A feral youth, he knew nothing of personal hygiene, was illiterate, spoke inarticulately, had rotten teeth and suffered from severe ADHD. He’d been horribly neglected. The school he’d been attending wrote him off and considered him unteachable. Despite this, […]
Wrestling With Words and Other Writing Conundrums
It all seemed so wonderful, this writers conference. None of us had been out amongst fellow writers and friends for what seemed like forever. Our last conference was cancelled (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why). Omicron wasn’t even anything beyond a letter in the Greek alphabet. We were all vaxxed, masked and […]
Change
I took the above picture this morning as I went on my morning walk. Only a few weeks ago, the mountains were decorated in orange, red and rust hues. Now, they’re just brown and bare. The lake still has its usual population of waterfowl, including geese, ducks and swans (they always class up any body […]
Success
Because I’ll take any excuse to whip up some pancakes and sausages, I invited two of my friends over for brunch. I know, that’s pretty said, but then again, you can’t beat pumpkin pancakes with link breakfast sausage on a chilly October morning. That, and I hadn’t seen Chelsea and Connie in ages. Well before […]
The Foreigner
We sat around the dining room table, chewing on the remains of scones and a fruit platter. The Zoom version of our writers group ended and a discussion of its topic lingered a short while after. But of course, as conversations goes, it turned to the inevitable, at least in this group. Husbands. Isn’t it […]
Confessions of A Middle-Age Woman 