Category: Personal Insight

  • Clearly, Patience Is Not One of My Virtues

    One of the demons I wrestled with on my driving trip out west in January–and one of the biggest reasons for my pissy attitude at the time–was the overwhelming feeling I’d had for the previous six to eight months that it was way beyond time for me to stop being a burden on society and…

  • 15 Days, 4,072.7 Miles, and One Amazing Little Travel Companion

    After 15 days and 4, 072.7 miles, the Tedster and I finally pulled into our driveway last night, spent but happy for our efforts. We were ready to be home even if home was covered in snow and the car thermometer barely topped 20 degrees F. Tom made sure the cold crap-ola outside was negated…

  • A More Meaningful Christmas

    I grew up during the Vietnam War. As a child, I had no understanding of the politics behind our involvement in a conflict half a world away; but, I was acutely aware that whatever was going on over there was often creating a great deal of conflict here at home. The evidence was everywhere, including…

  • My Own Fence Post Moment

    In the most recent post on her website, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, the current Poet Laureate of Kansas, writes: In Kansas where I live, particularly in the western part of the state, the land is curved and lined with beautiful stone fence posts, each one holding the wire fencing from one place to another. We have such…

  • My New Haircut: Going with the Grow

    For longer than I want to admit, Suzi, my hair stylist, has been trying to get me to stop forcing my hair into a style that goes against “the way it grows.” She’s tenacious. A real trooper. I’ll give her that. For several years now, after painstakingly cutting and shaping my short locks, Suzi has…

  • Pure Bliss

    I had really hoped to sit down and write today. I’ve had all these things rattling around in my head that I want to write about, but no time to give them form. I’m not complaining, really. Since I last posted, I’ve enjoyed a visit with a sister-in-law I rarely get to see; a few wonderful…

  • Chopping and Dicing and Slicing…Oh My!

    “Hi, I’m calling to enroll in the Basic Cooking Skills classes—all four of them. I’d like to enroll my husband, too.” “Great! Have either of you taken classes here before?” “Well, my husband hasn’t, but I took a cookie baking class about a year ago.” “So neither of you has taken the Basic Knife Skills…

  • Guilt and My To-Do List

    In my previous life, my to-do lists were generated by the demands of a busy family and exacerbated by my professional life: get the laundry done, finish the user documentation for Client X, shop for the ingredients for the taco casserole you’re taking to the soccer banquet, compile and distribute the meeting agenda for Organization Y, call and…

  • Welcome!

    For the eight years prior to January 1, 2009, I earned my living as a technical writer. For most of that time, I enjoyed working for wonderful clients on challenging projects, but as the years passed, the actual content I was required to produce grew ever more repetitive, so repetitive it could have written itself if it…