Seven Years

Seven years ago today, the O.R. nurse laid a squalling, purple human being in my arms and my last coherent thought before passing out from exhaustion and anesthesia was, “So…that’s who’s been kicking me.”
Seven years ago today, the two of us became the three of us, and things like dinner reservations, airplane tickets, and trips [...]

February 1st

I can’t help making New Year’s resolutions. There’s just something so compelling about that sense of starting over. As Anne Shirley (with an “e”) says, “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.” I feel like a newly-minted penny, and, for a few weeks, at least, I’m pretty shiny.
My problem is endurance. A year [...]

The Perfect Purse

I hate purse shopping.
Hate it.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Other women happily fill their closets with expensive Prada pocketbooks and Gucci totes, accessorizing with their outfits and switching out handbags as often as they change their underwear. I just can’t do that. I form a bond with my purse. I choose one bag, [...]

Here Comes the Sun (da da da dum)

Wow–spring cleaning one’s blog is a lot easier than spring cleaning one’s house. Would anybody like to work out a trade?

Penalty Kill

Last night was Girls Night Out. There were six of us, so we decided to balance out all that estrogen by going to a minor league hockey game. (Actually, this was an emergency GNO, hatched in an effort to keep one of our number from crashing her ex-husband’s wedding, making an emotional scene, and possibly [...]

Further Up and Further In

I have started reading The Chronicles of Narnia again. Every few years, I pick up The Magician’s Nephew and, over several days, wing my way through to the last page of The Last Battle, which never fails to capture my imagination and fill me with longing. It amazes me, as it always does, to recognize [...]

Getting There Is Half the Fun

This will come as no surprise to those who know me, but I have an obsessive personality. When I find something new to like, I like it with the mad, passionate intensity of a bullet train on a no-stop run across the Iowa flatlands. Everything else becomes scenery, a passing blur on the sidelines of [...]