My aunt died this week. I knew it was coming; I saw her in January when I went out to Iowa for my mother’s funeral and I could see her health was failing. Other than my father’s funeral five years ago, I hadn’t spent any real time back to Iowa in literally decades, and what […]
Learning to share.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The trifecta of family holidays in our home. For over 25 years, these are the days where I roll up my sleeves and dive headfirst into the kitchen where I simmer, roast, steam, and bake with gusto, just like my father used to do when I was growing up. Those were […]
Collapse and think and remember and thank.
This has been one hell of a two month sprint. My timecards show me out more than I’ve been in. My Asana dashboard consistently, insistently shows me multiple tasks overdue. I’m hit and miss on email because Slack keeps me hopping on the critical tasks that need to be addressed. I’ve even taken to saving my […]
On impact.
I wouldn’t describe myself as a cautious person, but I’ve always had a healthy respect for automobiles — especially in a college town where pedestrians and cyclists play their own version of Frogger every day. It’s almost too easy to think of downtown as an extension of campus. but when students walk right into the street […]
Where the day takes you.
You never really quite know where the day will take you. Last Monday I was dragging my feet getting into work. It was the first day of classes at Penn State and experience has taught me that the streets downtown would be thick with new students fresh off summer break. I took my time to wrap […]
The perfect storm.
Last year was, in many ways, a transformational year for me. It was the first year after more than two decades of active parenting where there were no more kids in the house to tend to and care for. It was the year TheCop and I really had to examine where we were, and decide where to go […]
Seeking closure.
Sunday evening found me sitting in the Detroit airport awaiting my fourth flight of the day to get me back to my starting point over 14 hours earlier. I’d flown to Omaha, Nebraska, from a conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, via Chicago, Illinois, for a seven hour layover to attend a memorial service for my father. […]
Turbulence ahead.
We interrupt your conference fun for familial duty. We anticipate some rough turbulence ahead, but we’ll try to get you through it with minimum scarring. Hang in there and we’ll return you to your regularly scheduled programming as soon as humanly possible. Meanwhile, breathe deeply and think calm thoughts. Alcohol might also help.
Time marches on.
I’m awaiting the dawn. The inevitable arrival of daylight means our departure for Philadelphia is imminent, as is the return of a quieter life as we’ve come to know it. A return to a life where dishes get put in the dishwasher once they are used — hell, where dishes are actually used. Where things […]
Love in the time of sarcasm.
There’s really nothing terribly special about our family — we are as dysfunctional as the next (though, not nearly as dysfunctional as the one in which I grew up). Somehow through fights and growing pains and tantrums and happy meal toys, three little kids grew up into three pretty-much-adults with this odd feeling of connection. I’m not […]
Cognitive dissonance.
You know, there are times I am thrilled to be able to say I have a job which actually happens to be in my field of study. There is even a bonus to doing what I do in my off time–play with computers, dabble in new applications, see what the next best thing is on […]
