When you have a dog, a house, a full-time job and you live with people, there is only so much time in life to go around. All this to say that this poor, neglected blog that I really like got thrown aside when the Wisconsin Historical Society Press liked the first three chapters of the … Continue reading My pandemic baby has words, pictures and a publisher: Adventures in authorship
Category: personal history
This is what I tweeted the Friday before Thanksgiving. Had I known then that the back of my head was going to make national news, I would have packed a hairbrush along with my coffee and knitting to take to the Wisconsin Center. Two days prior, the Trump Campaign had wired $3 million to recount the vote … Continue reading Confessions of an Election Worker: ‘I spent it on sock yarn’ Part 2
Once upon a time in Cincinnati, I got to hang out on a witness stand for 10 minutes getting cross-examined by an attorney. He was trying to undermine the credibility of someone on whose behalf I was testifying. The attorney wondered whether this person, a student at Large Midwestern Technical College, where I was an … Continue reading Confessions of an Election Worker: ‘I didn’t steal anything. I counted votes.’ Part 1
Last night, I had two different sets of anxiety dreams. These days, you don’t even have to be asleep to have anxiety dreams. Between COVID-19, a critical mass of people finally starting to think about what it really means to come to terms with the US’s legacy of institutionalized racism, despite very real pushback from … Continue reading Art for an anxious moment: remembering a childhood ‘friend’
That's Bubby grinning in front with Aunt Ann next to her and in back, (l-r), Aunt Adele, Mom (aka "Aunt Irlene"), Aunt Bessie & Aunt Freda. My family was comprised of women who were not warm and fuzzy. They were efficient. Mom, in particular, was not all shy about noting the shortcomings of her offspring. … Continue reading If you loved it, you fed it: a Mother’s Day Post, recipe included
For Wisconsin voters, shit didn’t just get real this past week. It rolled downhill, thanks to the cabal of legislators and judges who insisted the April 7 election run in business-as-usual fashion - in the midst of a pandemic. That meant registered voters who hadn’t receieved absentee ballots in time to return them postmarked by … Continue reading Anger tinged with hope: a WI election story from the bottom of the hill
There’s a lot of noise out here right now, as everyone screams silently from wherever they’re holed up. Sweetheart and I are holed up at home and beyond grateful. Our jobs haven’t been dramatically affected. Having previously weathered extended periods of under- and unemployment, we fully understand and appreciate how lucky we are. The last … Continue reading Pandemic musings from a virtual reference librarian
The night our father went missing, my sister hung out in her bedroom, reading “The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn. Dad had given her the book, and she figured reading it might help bring him home. That was 46 years ago (or will be, this coming Saturday). This morning, in an email, she told … Continue reading Long-dead hypochondriac & sports fan’s life lessons on managing COVID-19
Wednesday, while listening to Gordon Sondland’s testimony in the Impeachment Inquiry as I drove to a doctor’s appointment for which I turned out to be five minutes and 24 hours late, I called my sister. She picked up, 100 percent “That Annoyed Person Interrupted by an Unwanted Phone Call.” “I’m trying to watch the Impeachment … Continue reading Keep your eyes on the road & know your limits: An Impeachment Inquiry Vignette
On Halloween, Sweetheart and I saw “Hamilton,” which is finally touring. It would probably be more accurate to say that I finally saw “Hamilton” and Sweetheart came along for the ride. He knows I wouldn’t have spent gobs of money and dragged him out on a work night if I hadn’t been pretty certain he’d … Continue reading ‘Hamilton’ lyrics hit home for me & my sister: who tells our cousin’s story?
the sentence factory 