I went to college in a smallish midwestern city with a gorgeous lakefront, gritty urban streets, and crazy lunatics roaming the alleys (campus was two blocks from the Rescue Mission, a psychiatric hospital, and the Pabst Mansion open to the drunk public). Most of my classes were held next to the Y on the city’s [...]

STACY won the Sony Digital Camera!     Toots at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Create little girl. Create and explore and discover and trot into this wonderful world wanting to know more.   Earlier this year Toots went on a field trip to get to know our community. This meant visits to [...]

Remember this?   Well it all worked out, thank the heavens. Seems Blue Shield read my blog and got me in touch with a smart person.   But now? A medical bill has been put up for collection due to an admin snafu and when I called the collection agency to dispute it, I had [...]

(Inspired by Mama Mary…)   You know how you’re driving, and the a-hole behind you is riding your butt, and you’re trying to put some space between the two of you but every time you speed up, they speed up? And then they angrily whip around your car and give you a look because apparently, [...]

  My pastoral backyard. Where probably killer rabbits and diabolical rattlers abound.   I have a friend who is a biologist. She’s taken me on the most delightful adventures where we encounter all manner of wildlife that I ran away from and bitch about, much to her chagrin. The time we went hiking in the [...]

He didn’t care, just didn’t care. They could do whatever they wanted. Didn’t bother him. Not one bit. He averted his eyes as they walked past, pretending to be absorbed in the kid’s street basketball game. They probably didn’t spend enough time with their kids anyway. He bet they didn’t.   “Hi Ben!” Someone called. [...]

Lots to update on! But! Because I only have one minute…let’s play a game!   I did this last night on Twitter because…   Hmmmm.   {{{{Thinking…}}}}   Well turns out that like most things in my life, I don’t know why I did it.   So meanwhile!   Watch this pretend pendulum swing and [...]

Yesterday at the breakfast table, Toots looked up from her Cheerios with a sudden urge to tell me: Mom! You DO NOT want to get into a fight with Abraham Lincoln!   To which I non-thinkingly replied: Why? Because he’s dead?   Prompting her to roll her eyes and say: No! Because if you disagree [...]

  I was a moony kid. At the tender age of six or seven, I’d be found under a tree, looking through the branches at the clouds in some deep daze it took 85 mom-shouted “DEBORAHS!” to shake me out of. I read books while I walked to school, inadvertently wandering off the curb and [...]

Plain and simple, here’s this week’s PROMPTuesday creative writing prompt:   When is the first (or last) time you felt like a square peg in a round hole?   Post your submission in the comments OR post in your blog and leave a link to your blog in the comments.   First time to PROMPTuesday? [...]

I’ve previously alluded to the fact that I once attended a “psychic party” in 1995 Chicago, where a group of us girls paid to have our past, present, and futures read by a reverend who had ESP abilities, right? I say “alluded” because for some reason, I don’t like to talk about it much even [...]

A bit of background: My new insurance plan with Blue Shield of California was effective April 1. My premium was $589.30. I paid $864.26 on March 30, which paid me through May 15. Two weeks later, the dopes at Blue Shield debited my account $589.30. I alerted them to the problem and said I’d be [...]

The objects listed below, while provided free in a swag bag from Mom’s Night Out recently, are included of my own volition because:   a) They saved me time   b) They made me look efficient or otherwise put together to people who don’t know better   c) They delivered coffee into my mouth at [...]

This month’s book club book is Call Me Your Name.  

Check out this site to find playgroups in your area, plan play events, have parent discussions, share photos and set up playdates. It’s a veritable social networking site for parents.  

My brother and his styley wife, Jill, were on a home improvement show recently where their NYC deck was transformed into deliciousness. Check it out here. Try to make it to the end where you can enjoy the sounds of my broham’s nervous chuckling upon the deck reveal.  

  Remember how The Rock and I went to Los Angeles to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary?   Yeah, me neither.   Already those memories of alone time and afternoon nookie have been covered with back-to-real-life goings ons such as wiping other people’s butts and packing borderline-nutritious school lunches.   Still, I’d like to see [...]

You know how you look back on your life and recognize certain moments that changed things forever? How you could have gone this way or that way, but you choose the way over there, and you’re a different person because of it?   For me, that moment was when I moved from Chicago to Los [...]

  A soft-bodied marine animal without a backbone.   Slightly adjunct to last week’s post is that Toots had a jellyfish report due today. An oral report. Of facts she had to memorize. Accompanied by a poster board of pictures she drew to illustrate her supporting points. Points like jellyfish lifecycles and animal classification.   [...]

Why didn’t you people tell me about the overachieving parents at elementary school? Was it a hard lesson you thought I should learn myself? Like how no one tells you your butt will hurt four years after giving birth?   I don’t know, I guess I thought that kindergarten would be more low-key. Like maybe [...]

  WHY, OH WHY INDEED   “Why are you doing this?”   It was a simple question, surely. Referring to something I’ve been doing continuously for nine years, but why, WHY? What do I hope to get out of it?   That was his next question.   He and I were sitting at a bar [...]

I don’t know why, I really, really don’t: But the lines I’m going to share below have repeated in my head lately. I first published this sometime in 2008 (PROMPTuesday #13 to be exact) and I want to provide the story starter again. I feel like it’s singing a siren song.   You get that, [...]