“Mom, you’ve been using that word a lot lately,” Suzy told me. And she was right. Without even noticing how often I had been uttering that verb, I had decided to “recalibrate” holiday plans (due to extended fam illness) and “recalibrate” how and when we went about our Must Do traditions. I recalibrated how much food I really had to cook, and recalibrated how little I could get away doing before I descended into a pile of anxious lists and {Read More}
The story of the puppy.
October 25, 2020 By Leave a Comment
(Because if it’s not documented on the blog, do we really even have a puppy?) I grew up with not-quite-puppy dogs. My childhood was filled with slightly older rescues. Also dogs who were babies before I had entered the picture. And eventually my parents adopted a pup or two after I had exited the picture. P.J. had dogs, too, loyal family pets and veritable baskets full of shiny, licky, Golden Retrievers. But when we moved in together, we had cats. {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 4: WTF Movers?!
August 6, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Part 4. Part Four?! Movers. Here’s the thing about movers. …Why. Why are they like that. (And oh my goodness, we’re SO CLOSE to the end of this saga! Related: Can you believe that I’m still blogging about this nonsense? You should see me in person. Theoretically, if we were able to have parties, I’d be real real fun at parties.) So. To catch up: Our moving “specialists” were jerks with a phone call returnability record akin to my middle {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 3: We Actually Leave.
July 30, 2020 By 1 Comment
Yes, people, we finally leave Chicago in this latest installment of We Are Never Moving Again. Now, where were we? Ah yes, we were seven hours into what was already promising to be the longest move of our lives. And our movers had brought the not-at-all-agreed-upon truck. And our “moving specialist” had gone radio silent. (Earth silent, really.) And the heart-wrenching day of Meaningful Goodbyes was quickly turning into a fire sale. Because. When the moving broker finally deigned to {Read More}
Chicago to the Berkshires, Part 2: So, moving brokers?
July 23, 2020 By Leave a Comment
OKIE doke. So. Can we talk about moving brokers in this one? Previously, on Chicago to the Berkshires (Part 1), our heroine found herself in a weepy puddle of nostalgia, compounded by a very real timeline of leavin’ town, with a nice dash of “haven’t slept for days n’ days” to really punch up the bawling. I think I did a fairly good job of portraying the feelings and emotions and everything else ramping up to the move…but what of {Read More}
My grief during quarantine: A selfish/justified lament.
April 30, 2020 By Leave a Comment
Grief is weird. I can’t keep a thought in my head. Not for very long, anyhow. It’s like Tron all up in there, with neon thoughts zipping around and pinging off of walls. (Wait, that’s Tron, isn’t it? Or am I thinking of Pong with with the addition of laser sounds?) We should have the kids watch Tron, once I remember what it is. But definitely not Blade Runner– too real. This is my problem. This is one of my {Read More}
My goal for 2020? To take care of others- and myself
December 10, 2019 By 2 Comments
Exactly one year ago, I weighed 117 pounds. I was in severe pain; my belly, my ribs, my brain. For a month, nothing was “officially” wrong. Blood tests were fine, organ functions were skipping along, and- if you disregarded the fact that I couldn’t eat a thing- my doctors assured me that I was all good. I would wake up in in the middle of the night, weeping, panic gripping my chest, the knowledge that I was actually dying keeping {Read More}
Change…is hard.
May 2, 2019 By 2 Comments
Change. …is hard. That could be the whole dang post right there, couldn’t it? CHANGE IS HARD. (It won’t be, however, because “concise” is not my “thing.”) Sometimes- as the case was this past winter- the name of the game was Stillness. Mandatory, forced, if-you-don’t-stop-this-junk-and-stay-still-your-brain-will-break Stillness. At first it was incredibly difficult and felt more like stagnation than a resting period. (Then I got over that real real quick and took daily naps and read entire mystery series and had {Read More}
