Finding a new tool that maps crime in your neighborhood is a good thing. It’s also really, really scary. It’s amazing how much goes on in broad daylight. And while I don’t mean to make light of crime, one of my favorite surprises was seeing how mu…

Last summer, I was at Disneyland on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad when it broke down. The train sat, stuck, on one heck of an incline. Ride operators eventually came around and helped us off, then walked us down the faux, red clay steps just t…

I often say that I have no problem writing (stories and the like) about things that are dark, depressing, negative, catastrophic. There’s something about the drama that I like, although I try my best to shun it on a daily basis in my own life. I l…

I realized something the other day: I sell myself short on a daily basis, and I have a fear of finding Mr. Right because I assume that once he gets to know me, he’ll pull a, “Oh, this is the real you? Just kidding. Bye.” I’m tired of goodbye. In m…

A friend posted a few “typographic conundrums” on Facebook recently, and I was very taken by them. In fact, I was smitten. They were so simple, so perfect. The word “lie” was written in tiny, frosty type against a slate background. What was it? A …

I don’t know how they do it — mine, or anyone else’s. I don’t know how they have the energy to focus on anything more than when their next nap will be. I don’t know how any quality sleep can ever be had when their ears never rest. Even the slight…

One of my all-time favorite albums is one that pulls from many. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ greatest hits compilation is a collection of tunes that takes me back almost two decades – back to when I first started listening to it.Do you have a …

My cat has been fairly aloof this week — more aloof than cats tend to be, that is. I suspected a few days ago that he’d been in a brawl, because I heard the distant screeching of two felines mixing it up late one night. He also reeked the next mo…

A long time ago, someone told me that you could tell a good establishment by conducting a simple sign test. If the word “cocktails” was mentioned on the signage, it was supposedly a good place to take a load off. If it simply said “bar,” one shoul…

I filled a new prescription last night to help with my shoulder issue. Not really a fan of ingesting 1000 mg of pain medication, but I was certainly looking forward to its effects. The literature, I noticed, said something different than what I re…