Random confession: I hate roses.  I hate the way they look and I especially hate the way they smell. My visceral aversion to the flower stems from a very deep-rooted negative association to the smell.  So much so that I, one time, yanked out a rose bush from the yard of a home we’d just…

Our move out of Ohio is complete.  We are about to spend our first night in our new condo in Virginia.  I’ve been waiting for this move for close to 4 years and I can’t even describe how happy I am to be back here.   I talk a lot of shit about Ohio.  I…

an·thro·po·mor·phism [ˌanTHrəpəˈmôrfizəm] NOUN the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. ——————– Our HOA decided a long time ago that everyone has to conform to the style of mailbox they chose many years ago.  They are regulatory USPS metal mailboxes that have been housed in a house.  Seriously.  They are…

I love words.  I love writing certainly, but words give me chills.  A single word will cause me to pause.  It is extremely satisfying to hear a word I’d forgotten.  Most recently, hearing “agonize” and “impetuous” made me ridiculously happy.  When a word rings out and catches my attention, I stop to taste and feel…

I recently tried my prom dress on and it fit. Barely. Okay, not at all in any comfortable way. Truth is I couldn’t breathe and I felt like I was wearing a corset. ANYWAY… I still have it because it felt like an important memory to hang onto.  That makes no sense now because, honestly,…

I wasn’t really a teddy bear kid in the sense that I had to sleep with him every night.  Mostly he hung out on top of my bed or propped in a corner.  I loved him but didn’t pay him much mind.  I made those overalls myself when I was about 11 and you can…

What I remember most vividly about those mortifying schoolyard picks was the way the P.E. teacher always seemed distracted, doing her own thing on her clipboard while the rest of us endured this horrifying ritual. The same two biggest or most athletic kids were always the captains while the rest of us lined up like…

I grew up and spent most of my young adult life around mountain ranges.  My first experience with mountains were the ones I could see every day of my childhood and teen age years in Tucson, AZ: I used to marvel at the beautiful colors and shadows and wasted hours trying to find a unique…

I’m the first to admit that my opinion about dress codes has, and continues to swing, from one side of the spectrum to the other.  I’m going to follow my thought process all the way to the conclusion and hope I don’t contradict myself. As a child of the 80s, I grew up hating dress…