Dec 2011
26
Notes to self: Do not confuse internal temperatures of roast beef and chicken or you will serve guests cardboard. Do not begin, less than a week before Christmas, a homemade gift that requires days of sewing and the conscription of your children into embroidering and quilting. You will end up swearing like a sailor and you [...]
Dec 2011
23
Today’s brave history, for the record: I wonder how much longer she will hold my hand in public. Despite his fragile lungs, he skated the entire session. A visit isn’t complete without sharp words and tears and laughter. Lots of laughter. Feeling fortunate to witness my youngest sister find her rhythm as a mother. Being [...]
Dec 2011
10
From broken dreams, I woke to a morning still dark with the night, to a day that started with the sleep-sound of a gun fired. There’s much to do, and I didn’t plan to make writing one of those things, yet here I sit in a small circle of light, typing as I wait for [...]
Oct 2011
25
When I learned to cook it was for a crowd. I made towers of pancakes, mountains of oatmeal and buckets of soup, practical and economical fare for a family that sat shoulder-to-shoulder around a kitchen table. It was only after I left home that learning to cook with large quantities presented a problem: I’d eat [...]
Oct 2011
20
A small sack of chocolate spiders sat on the table. Ivan peeked into the bag, then looked at me. We could cut them, he said. No, I answered. You ate your spider and those are for your brothers and sister. They could share? he said. No, I said. Count them. He reached inside and pulled [...]
Oct 2011
17
Packing a house. Not eating chocolate. Writing right now. Thirteen-year-old girls. Patience. Ending arguments. Balancing a checkbook. Keeping a kitchen stocked with milk and cereal. Laundry. Preschool forms that don’t allow you to respond that your child’s dislikes are peanut butter, idiots and losers. Understanding mortgage paperwork. Keeping new boots new. Not swearing in front [...]
Oct 2011
11
My dad’s battled lung cancer and won, at least for the past six weeks. He’s survived surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and his lungs are strong and carry no signs of malignant cells. It makes me want to laugh, to sigh, to sob. Lungs are two vineyards separated by a heart. Inside their lobes, hanging like [...]
Oct 2011
3
The next time I saw the star he was sleeping under the Aurora Bridge, where my youngest son and I had hiked to in order to visit the Fremont Troll, a hulking stone creature with eyes that gleamed like mercury and whose hand grasped a VW Bug. The belly of the bridge was filled with [...]
Sep 2011
27
The first time I saw the star it was 3:40 in the afternoon, a strange time to see a star, for sure, and stranger still that it was inside the library. Later, I realized this was a good place for a star to hang out, the library being quiet and dim. Perhaps that’s why I [...]
Sep 2011
22
Summer ended with song and sweetness around here. This morning’s blackberry picking yielded a single jar of jelly, which later was enjoyed on the stoop with toast and tea while listening to Esperanza Spalding’s “Chim Chim Cher ee,” the perfect song to welcome autumn.
