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A Good Neighbor: Remembering Prince
I pull up to the high school — running late! — and park at the curb. It’s my first time driving since shoulder surgery, my first time behind the wheel in six weeks. I’m shaky. As I put the car into Park, Allegra bursts through the doors of the school’s glass foyer and hustles to the…
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So Many Losers
It’s time to announce the winners of the book giveaway! The winner of Girl Through Glass is: Linda Solstrand The winner of Queen of the Night is: Jessica Rapisarda I’ll be contacting each of you to get mailing information. Read in good health. Smear the pages as you will. I recommend melted chocolate from cookie…
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Book Giveaway
I have a thing about bananas. Because they are my preferred breakfast food, I need to have them in the house at all times. If we are out of bananas, or even if we are running low, I can’t relax. If need be, I will zip down to the grocery store after dark, just to…
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The Shoehog’s Fluevblog
When I was in my early twenties, I lived in a cabin outside of Boulder, Colorado, with some friends. One of my roommates loved animals and was the owner of a wolf — technically 15/16 wolf — and a ferret. Also noteworthy was the personality of the animal owner, a woman who was eternally willing…
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A Day in the Life: The Director of Social Services
I am the Director of Social Services at a not-for-profit continuing care community in Tucson, Arizona. The facility, Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, offers a multitude of living options, all on one campus. We provide independent living (where residents come to the dining room for meals, but receive no other assistance), assisted living, advanced…
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Books for 13-Year-Olds
Recently, I did some crowd sourcing on Facebook, asking folks for help in coming up with a book that Paco and a couple of his friends — a group of seventh graders — could read for school as a sort of book club. Now, Paco is a persnickety reader. He wanted a book that was either sci-fi…
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Baby, You’re a Star
At the end of each quarter at the high school, many students’ schedules undergo shifts. Maybe they switch to taking the required Health course, or maybe external pushes and pulls result in the order of their classes getting switched around. Sometimes, those pushes and pulls cause a student to be moved into the class of…
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A Day in the Life: I Am a Hat Rack
Four years ago, a new semester started in my online classes, and I got scared. In one of my sections of research writing, a section that was very lively from the first day and never ceased to have excellent energy, there was this one student, and she made me nervous. You see, during the first…
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I Didn’t Eat the Booger
It’s my birthday. I’m 49 today. I’m also in the midst of recovering from shoulder surgery, in a semi-diminished state that has left me feeling grateful for many things on this day of taking stock. Example #1: Last week, Byron and I were standing in the bathroom, with him waiting to assist me in some…
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In a Funk
“How can it smell so bad? We just showered you yesterday!” As I stand in the kitchen sniffing my fingertips, Byron is incredulous. Bruno Mars is still backstage polishing his loafers, yet there is some serious funk going on. I press my fingertips to my nose, and it is a testament to my steel stomach…
