If I even TRIED to craft anything remotely worthwhile, it’d take me weeks to chip through all the brain mucous, so…   Bullet points it is.     My Mother’s Day present from Holly Marie Jewelry arrived. You can’t see the detail because I need photography intervention, but Toots’ and Booger’s names/birthdates are on the [...]

  I’m currently lazing in bed, sick tissue at the ready, listening to the most majestic wind outside my window. The shades, pulled down to soften the sunlight, undulate against the window and there’s a subtle whooshing, not unpleasant, letting me know that the world is breathing and all is well, all is well. It’s [...]

Starting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 1, the first 1,500 people through the doors of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center will receive free admission. An IMAX® film can be purchased for $5 per film (also limited to first 1,500 guests to visit the Science Center on May 1.)  

As a sworn hypochondriac, it’s my moral duty to distinctly remember every time I was really sick, not the in-my-head sick of every other day. And oh how I remember in vivid, technicolor detail. Let’s see, there was the time I was 13 and felled by some mysterious virus flu microbe that made my eyes [...]

This morning Toots asked me if we could live in our house forever. Given that we rent the place, I knew the answer would be “no,” but I didn’t have the resolve to say it. As a kid who moved and moved and moved, I understood her question on a deep heart-level. Luckily, when I [...]

I spend a lot of time in coffee joints that offer free wi-fi. It’s where I do the majority of my work. As any freelancer knows, if you’re a mom who works from your physical place of residence, you’re totally screwed. There’s the laundry calling, the counter crumbs collecting, and the vacuum sitting; ain’t no [...]

I went to dinner with a friend the other night and couldn’t help but notice the new enormous diamond ring on her finger.   “Wow that’s beautiful!” I said. “Truly.”   A rock of monumental size, the diamond sparkled like a thousand very expensive stars that cost a lot of very expensive money.   She [...]

Do you know those people who take everything very seriously? And you have to watch what you say because they offend so easily? And more often than not you say something completely innocent and they take it the wrong way?   Take for instance an acquaintance named Lamey. She is single and having a great [...]

I love thrift stores. Love, love, LOVE thrift. Stores.   Love ‘em.   If you want me to have a multiple O, first take me to the library, then to Rubio’s and finally, to the Goodwill.   I would O all over the place. And not the Oprah kind.   Serious.   So…Given that it’s [...]

  I took this picture at my mom’s 50th birthday party in 1991. Who knew then that 19 years later, two of the smiling people would be dead, my dad remarried, and the house sold.   The day I snapped this photo was a happy one. My mom had overcome breast cancer, my parents were [...]

  She runs inside to where I am at the sink, washing the endless dishes. I hear her fling her shoes off and soon she’s before me in a puff of anxiety.   She’s breathless and wild-eyed. “Mom? Is my head going to fall off?”   I know who this is coming from, and I’m [...]

Know a SoCal mother who launched a small business in the last 12 months and is looking for a much needed way to spread the word?   Read about how to nominate her (or yourself!) here, here, or here to win space at a KidsFest double-sized booth with the fabulous organization HelpAMotherOut. KidsFest happens in [...]

I can’t stand choosing separates. I don’t know what goes with what and so tend to wear something like what I wore today: off-trend gray capris, shapeless yellow tee and a baggy puce-y sweater. With moccasins.   Moccasins that had flowers on them.   Please do not send the fashion police to shoot me in [...]

{{Hey look at me! Doing my own PROMPTuesdays and shit}}!       I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with my husband.   No see, because my friend didn’t plan it that way. I was supposed to fall in love with her brother.   Thing was, the brother was 100% not my type, but [...]

  And you thought I was classy (Right?): These retail for upwards of $300. Yet I procured them from Goodwill for $12.   You know how you see those Oprahs? And the tear-weary woman being interviewed didn’t know for years that:   a) Her husband was gay b) Her husband was a woman c) Her [...]

{{THERE USED TO BE SOMETHING ELSE UP HERE. IT’S BEEN REDACTED DUE TO A THIRD-PARTY’S OVERSHARING CONCERNS.}}   Let’s atone for last week’s absence.   I promised a helpful tip, did I not? And let me just say that most of you probably already know this household hint I’m about to share because YOU likely [...]

To hold to my “editorial calendar,” I owe you all a tip and a Stuff I Like. I know you’ve been waiting. I bet there’s even bated breath involved. Possibly some anticipatory anxiety (the good kind). Am I right? Huh?   Is this thing on?   Sometimes I feel so alone.   Be back with [...]

This is my PROMPTuesday submission for this week. My writing group started back up last night and I made the commitment to do my own prompts — something I’ve neglected to do for a year. So here we go…   She first appeared as my mother’s twin when I was seven. I heard her gravel [...]

Today’s creative writing prompt is pretty cool, if I do blog so myself.   Check it:   Do you have a vivid or regularly repeating dream that stays in your mind long after you’re awake? Take some elements from this dream (or parts of a bunch of different dreams you remember) and write a story. [...]

My childhood memories are peppered with images of the freaky paintings my mom hung on our walls. I don’t know how she didn’t the hell factor in any of these pictures because to me, they’re the stuff nightmares are made of and they’d keep me awake just thinking about them. Truly, any self-respecting kid would [...]

“How are the kids?” he asked during a routine work conversation.   I try to keep it short and sweet. “Good,” I say. “Toots turned 6 last month and Booger will be 4 next week.”   I could add more, so much more, but don’t want to bore him.   Turns out I can’t help [...]