Sparkly silver.

I arrived home this evening to something lovely in the night air. Someone had a fire going, and its smell was drifting through the neighborhood. Church bells chimed. The streetlight was illuminating a misty haze settling in for the duration. Neighbors’ Christmas lights were on. Finally, the weather was beginning to feel the way it […]

Here a Rut, There a Rut

My annual rut has arrived. I usually stumble into one at some point during the year, but “stumbling” seems to imply that there’s a sort of uneven ground that your feet happen upon, followed by some more shuffling as the soil gives way to rockiness, which gives way to a gully. This year’s rut feels like I […]

18.

Eighteen. The number of days left — including tonight — until I will have blogged daily for two years…minus a small hiccup last summer when the Palm Springs heat lulled me to sleep without warning…and without writing. Oops. Eighteen years ago I was eighteen. But I can only say that for thirteen more days…then 37 […]

Here.

I’m here. Sometimes it feels otherwise, like those nights when I’m too tired to think, to write, to move. But at this moment — listening to my laundry tumble about in the dryer, picking out the faint clackety-clack of a train’s song being carried through the night air and trying to ignore my hunger pangs […]

Charcoal.

Asphalt. Concrete. Cinder block. Metal. We were playing a high school basketball game on a campus that felt more like a prison. I didn’t want to be there. I kept looking over my shoulder and wondering who might shank any one of us if we scored against the home team. How did we end up […]

The Snacker and the Universe

I managed to do what’s damn near impossible for most people: I burned my microwave dinner. Last time I was at the store, I happened upon some frozen “lean gourmet” pepperoni pizza snackers. Hm. A way to get my pizza fix that’s both lean and gourmet? Sign me up. They weren’t bad. I made a […]

‘Tis the Season

It’s getting crazy out there. ‘Tis the season for oblivious drivers, mindless wanderers, rogue shopping carts and grabby people. I was buying tea yesterday. Tea — something that evokes images of quiet and calm, peace and warmth. After studying the display long and hard, my hand was almost upon a particular box, until said box […]

Use caution.

He just wanted to turn left into a housing tract. But it was rush hour, and he had to get across three lanes of traffic first. I was in the middle lane and the light up ahead was red. My lane was backing up quickly, so I kept the intersection open and left a clear […]

Movie Magic

Anyone been watching Hallmark Channel this season? If you have, maybe it’s because you’ve watched it before. Me, this is my first season. Newsflash (or maybe not so much): I’m a crier. Therefore, my newfound channel is, in fact, made for me. Tonight’s feature, Christmas in Conway, has it all: a story that tugs at […]