There are two ways I know when the universe is asking me to pay attention to something: The same comments/feedback/messages come to me again and again from people, places, and things. Despite all my best efforts, my focus is brought repeatedly to an idea or thought process, usually one I’ve been trying to avoid or…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #235: The Songs
We’d been waiting for the new parish center for years. Father Duffy brought its construction up at every mass and the fundraising was epic, as were the sales pitches: the auditorium would double as a roller skating rink, the young adult groups would have a place to meet, offices would be expanded allowing St. Mary’s…Continue Reading
Comparing Man Pain to Childbirth: Don’t Go There #ARant
Just yesterday, my husband hobbled home from two days playing a racquetball tournament that wrecked him and every single muscle group in his whole entire body. At the end of the thing, he couldn’t walk, drive, or be. Ended up, I picked him up from a nearby shopping center where he was buying beer to…Continue Reading
The Haircut
{This is free association writing. It was good and necessary for me to do, but if you’re looking for a point, I’m not sure it exists here. If I find it buried in these words somewhere one day, I’ll know why I wrote it.} He enters the house with the usual fanfare, carrying buckets…Continue Reading
Grocery Outlet Giveaway (GOG)
You know how you rave to your friends about something again and again and they largely ignore you and then try it for themselves one day and it’s like they’ve discovered it themselves? That’s so annoying. For instance, you might say, “Hey! The burgers over at Burger Dee-lite are delightful! You need…Continue Reading
My 30-Day Transformation
Somewhere around March 7 of this year, it occurred to me that I should probably clean up my act. This meant taking more vitamins (or just taking any vitamins to be precise), eating less beef-on-buns products, and exercising more (or just exercising in general). I’d been feeling plenty run down, stressed, and bulky for…Continue Reading
The Park
I watched from the park picnic table as four young teen-aged girls walked to the restrooms, shoulder to shoulder. The group caught my attention because they seemed to be dragging their feet, rather than actually picking them up one in front of the other, lending a sort of slow motion effect to their approach. They…Continue Reading
Touch&Know: Would You Test That Powder You Found in Your Kid’s Room?
I’ve feared drugs ever since I was a kid and watched Eve Plumb in “Dawn, Portrait of a Teenage Runaway” on ABC’s after-school special series. “Dawn” even made me dread entering high school for the first time, because I envisioned all teenagers as glassy-eyed wastoids lounging against lockers with hypodermic needles dangling from the…Continue Reading
What To Get Your Husband For Your Anniversary
I never know what to get my husband for anything. I used to try to dress him up with my holiday gifts, buying jeans and rugbies from the Gap and Banana Republic, but once he realized I was living some ’80s-Chicago-preppy dream and attempting to Jake Ryanize him, clothes as presents were off limits.…Continue Reading
Listen To Your Mother: So I Did
I knew Listen To Your Mother was coming. It’s a nationwide show, and surely one of the productions would settle somewhere near San Diego. I’d tried out before – in Los Angeles in 2011 – but had read something funny, which if you knew me in person, was an unwise choice. Writing funny and…Continue Reading
Time Savers from a Crazy Person
I don’t know what it is exactly – but I turbo hate to waste time on food and person prep. It’s like I just need to get to the next thing, and pesky irritants like using a cutting board to dice vegetables or taking my clothes off to iron them are too distracting. So,…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #234: The Road
I wrote this before, but am including it now – again – because I’m on a road. Slowly, inexorably putting one foot in front of the other, but there it is: a a foot and then another. For the on and on. And so today’s writing prompt is: write about your road. What stretch…Continue Reading