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I Am So Over All That Midnight Dreary, Pondering Weak and Weary
For me, the last couple of decades have been a glorious gambol. Sure, a couple of guys broke my heart, and a slew of annoying fine lines started creeping in around my eyes, but, on the flip side, I began investing in more expensive shoes, spooning every night with a man superior to those who…
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Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Parents
Do you ever get in your jammies and contemplate bedtime and then decide that you need to make a movie, real-quick-like, before you sack out all Tired Tiger on your sheets? And if you do, do you then ask your parents to do “something“–so long as it contains all the best of cinema, from conflict…
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I Need Pa
I grab comfort wherever I can find it– especially at the gym. To ease me through time on the treadmill, I rely heavily on my Ipod (having to hang onto the treadmill’s bar when I am thrust into a “Laugh at The Zany Mess That Is My Personal Taste” moment as my playlist cycles…
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Herein My Former Dean and Always Friend, Jim, Gives Me A Guest Blogger Assist During a Week Where I Might Lose My Mind Otherwise
Sometimes helping a friend and engaging in public navel gazing are the same thing. In this case, I offered to write a guest blog for Jocelyn because I know she’s just started school, has all her junk all over the house, and can’t find her Triscuits. Recently I was remembering an annoying woman I met…
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Hypertension in the Key of D
Sometimes, if your house is already in chaos due to a kitchen remodel, and then a new crew comes in to start refinishing your floors (one half of the house at a time, which means all possessions in two rooms get shoved into the other two rooms, and then the next week, everything from that…
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No Matter How High Their Heels, My Boots Never Rate a ‘Strongly Agree’
As the new semester revs up this week, my thoughts drift back to an adjunct instructor whom I mentored last year. A cool, lithe blonde, she shared with me how difficult it had always been for her to get valid, helpful student feedback in end-of-semester evaluations. “Sing Hosannah to the choir, Sister!” my enthusiastic phantom…
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Crumbs Under the Mini-Van Seat
This photo–of someone elses’s trashy mini-van–is one of the few things that makes me feel better about my own. Our mini-van is a pit, littered with popcorn, Goldfish crackers, granola bar wrappers, toys, and books. It’s a random place that, I fear, may never feel organized or tidy. The second that it does, we’ll know…
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Translating Candyland to Concrete? You Know It’s August, and You Still Have Almost a MONTH Until the Kids Go Back to School
How would you use up four buckets of sidewalk chalk?
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Friends Without Benefits
For a variety of reasons, I caved and joined Facebook recently. Since then, the barrage of friend requests has been interesting—bringing me up to date with people I actually have ongoing relationships with, but also, yes, causing me some bemusement. Several times now, I’ve had requests from people I don’t remember at all. I stare…
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A Day at the…
Hark and sunscreen! We visit the beach. Look, I have a mother who visited from California. Look, we have sand here (“here” being Park Point, the longest freshwater sandbar in the world) and not just pebbles. Look, we pose carefully for the nice lady from Minneapolis who asked, “Do I push this button?’ We shriek…
