I was just thinking how easy it is now to “spy” on people: You look up your ex on Facebook, peruse his/her family photo albums, watch people’s Twitter streams to see what they’re doing any given second of the day, and read blogs of people you haven’t met, but know intimately just the same. The [...]

I thought maybe we could know each other. As if perhaps I understood you on some level you didn’t see yourself. I knew your history, your reputation, shall we say; your penchant for sardonic wit and condescending elitism, but still, I passed it off as socially awkward, insecurity, deep sadness.   I stood up for [...]

You do what comes naturally. Hug your children, cook your meals. You spend several year-long minutes tying a knot because there’s beauty in the details and comfort in the time taken.   You lose yourself alone in the quiet, possibly humbled, laid low and bare. Not speaking unless there is something to say. You find [...]

Way back in April 2008, I introduced PROMPTuesday. Looking back, I see that I never ever not ever issued the prompt included in that introduction. So now I am:   It’s a doozy. You ready?   Write some flash fiction (write for three minutes, then stop.) These are your prompts:   “Egg” and “Horror genre.” [...]

Do you remember this poem? My friend Ellen gave me a burnt-edged copy of it in high school, and I’ve loved its simple profundity ever since.   Today’s a good day to read it again.   Comes The Dawn by Veronica A. Shoffstall   After a while you learn the subtle difference Between holding a [...]

As you have probably guessed by now, I am all about the skincare. Because my skin needs care. And a forklift to pull these wrinkles out of my neck. And a new face. Yes! That’s it. My skin needs a new face.   Forty-two-years-old! Why you gotta be so nasty? Uncle!   So given the [...]

  You’ve heard of it, right? The extensive, secret, unpublicized communications organization responsible for clearing out the on-sale Zoobles at Wal-Mart and the buy-two-get-one-free pound of bacon at the corner grocery store?   No?   Well, who do you think stands in line at Target on Black Friday, buying 85 Razor scooters for the friends [...]

  Everyone? When is the last time you felt completely at peace? That all was right with the world?   Please share your moment.   And adjunctively (possibly and probably a made-up word), is there something you do to reach a zen state?   Kindly share your mantra.   If you would, post your submission [...]

I am writing this for Auds’ beautiful daughter, Meg.   For some reason, I never expected to have children, despite Kathy King’s mumbo-jumbo “yarn” trick sophomore year that told me I’d be a mother to 16. I didn’t think I’d be married, either. I will admit that for awhile there, I DID wonder if maybe [...]

For as long as I can remember, I’ve watched my dad work hard. Beyond the norm, hard. Beyond the extraordinary, hard. He’s the sort to put his all into whatever he does and he gave his heart, soul, mind, and body to every company for which he worked. He wasn’t home much when I was [...]

Another The Smartly essay! This time on the SmartlySoCal site.   Some of you may have read this already. It’s a previously published piece.   That’s all for now.   But except for also you are all appreciated.  

Somehow bedtime around here has disintegrated into a rigorous re-enactment of CSI: Miami with a dash of Last Comic Standing and a prodigious sprinkle of Amazing Race. I don’t know how it happened really; the whole crazy nighttime routine that recently spiraled completely into the nether regions of hell’s eternal fire.   Let me lay [...]

For today, something simple. Maybe. Probably not.   Either way, please consider the prompt:   What have you always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?   Please 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? Read [...]

I’m too much of a pussywillow to publicy post the no-good, perfectly awful thing I did more than 15 years ago. Can I still be sued for desecration of property? For improperly applying lipstick? For having a boyfriend who impersonated a mentally-challenged half-marathoner?   You never know. And for that reason, I am password-protecting my [...]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Back in my 20s, I worked for an ad agency off Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Every morning I’d take the bus from my Lincoln Park walk-up to a busy stop across the street and up a few from Henri Bendel, then ride the elevator to four floors of the most self-absorbed, morally corrupt, home-wrecker establishment for [...]

Back in my 20s, I worked for an ad agency off Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. Every morning I’d take the bus from my Lincoln Park walk-up to a busy stop across the street and up a few from Henri Bendel, then ride the elevator to four floors of the most self-absorbed, morally corrupt, home-wrecker establishment for [...]