She was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size . . . Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
Lewis Carroll
To express what one wishes, one must look [...]
I had one of my weird Buffy the Vampire Slayer moments this week. This happens when ordinary life collides with pretend life and I seem to be the only one who notices. It is unsettling, like waking up and walking around only to wake up again and realize that the first waking was a dream.
It started with the weather [...]
When I was a kid, I didn’t care if television made us violent or contributed to bad grades or meant we had neglectful parents. I loved watching television. Television was what we did: after school, before bed, late on Friday night and two thirds of the day on Saturday. If we wanted to watch something, [...]
December is a tough month. Whatever your holiday or celebratory inclinations, stress begins to swirl like a snowstorm from the last bowl of turkey soup to the first fizz of New Year’s champagne. Every day seems a race to the end of the month, rushing from one paid day off work to the next with a checklist of extra [...]
I have been working in Cincinnati, Ohio for most of the past two weeks. I have been busy. I shuttle between a hotel room and an offsite training location and my meals are on the run – Starbucks, Wendy’s, McDonalds or a ham on rye and sweet tea from a chain deli across the parking lot. I [...]
This has not been a banner month at our house.
Work, for me, has been stressful. I have tackled a project that is more unwieldy than I assumed, it keeps sliding through my grasp and the chinks in my expertise. Details accumulate like mushrooms, popping up in the vast expanse of what I don’t know and [...]
I collect stories. I watch, interview, sort and relay with relish and enhanced veracity.
Here are three stories from last week that have stayed with me because, as referenced yesterday, they brought “the truth up front in daily consciousness.”
One:
The protagonist is a freshman in college, first week on campus. He is a context guy, always cognizant of [...]
Last weekend I went to a party at our neighbors’ house. Billed as A BBQ in the ‘burbs; the gimmick was to invite all their hip city friends out to the boondocks to enjoy a spacious backyard and fifty year-old trees. They offered great music, a keg of beer and a guest list that included [...]
I am sitting at a dining room table in a “vintage” house in suburban Chicago. It is not a big house but it is sturdy and tidy and has a huge elm tree in the front yard. It represents the middle of middle class living in the middle of Middle America. We may have a [...]
The first thing that catches my eye is everything. Sparkles, shiny silks, textured tulle and ribbons swirling from skirts, tiaras, scepters, it is a castle of dolls and clothing and pretty. We are in the Princess souvenir store at Disneyland. There are girls clustered around displays like brown rabbits in a flower garden, scruffy and [...]
