When I needed something but felt guilty asking for it, dad loved to pull out his wallet and let the hundreds fan in front of my eyes for a second. “Oh man, I’m almost out of money,” he would say. Then we would exchange smiles. His smile would say, “What’re you worried about, kid?” My…
Yesterday I pulled out a manila file labeled “colors.” That’s the theme of the week in my Spanish class, so I have plans to bring colors to my students through various mediums. Skittles are on the docket, because if a student tastes the rainbow, he might be more motivated to remember its colors. I also…
It was my very first summer to mow the lawn, about a decade ago. When I was growing up that was a boy job, so I had never even been asked to mow. But the grass was kicking up Matt’s allergies and asthma so bad that I suggested I give it a go. Come to…
I remember one night when my dad and brother were gone, and mom and I wanted to set the VCR to record a TV show. I can imagine my children shaking their heads at that archaic technology, but at the time it was super cool that we could do such a thing. So we got…
I was sitting in the center of the long room, at one of the fancy new electric typewriters. It was a timed typing test, in my first semester of typing class. She said go, and I could not keep up. In one of my finest moments, I ripped the paper out of the machine, crumpled…
Twenty-eight hours into a 30-hour road trip –that’s when my son’s 2000 Dodge Neon lost its lights. We were five minutes north of Fort Worth, Texas when my husband decided we were going to have to find a mechanic. There was no way we could get through Fort Worth with no brake lights. Bums were…
You’ll know for sure how nerdy I am, when I tell you I’ve been praying about a grammar concern all summer. Maybe you’ve been hiking and boating and roasting marshmallows, but I just do words in all four seasons. So you know I’m a Spanish teacher, and I entered the summer determined to understand this…
I have been performing the same ritual every weekend for a few decades now. Old towels come down and get tossed into the hamper. New towels, still with a hint of bleach smell, get hung nice and fresh on the bathroom rods. On Friday night, I went through the routine. Once more I lamented the…
Exactly this time two years ago I was in a bad way. I had lost my medical transcription job earlier in the year, due to the incoming of electronics into the medical field. I had dreams of being a plain-ol’ housewife, but we were having a hard time meeting budget without me working. I was…
Sometimes all of these things happen in 24 hours: You wig out about money and then go into a deep depression because you think you can’t afford for you and your husband to take your son to college. You say you will stay home. You completely despair and think all of life is nothing but…
I slept nary a wink the other night, and siphoning coffee from the pot was not cutting the kind of tired I was feeling. I was one step away from a bad mood, so I went downstairs and got cozy on the left-hand side of the old couch we bought before Jayme was born. That’s…
Earlier in the year I came across a life-changing statement in a book I was reading, and it was almost my birthday, so I called that girl of mine and asked her if she would paint the quote on the wall in my kitchen, above the window. Does it have to be paint? she said….
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