Jim and I were supposed to have follow-up colonoscopies in 2010 and 2012, respectively. However, we decided to ignore this recommendation, to practice conscious denial, if you will, partly because of the explosive elimination involved (what Jim calls, “peeing through your butt,”) but also because of the odious prep solution, a hideous concoction tasting like […]
A Death in the Family
Note to Readers: Spoiler alert. You may want to skip the last paragraph if you are going to read American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West. I don’t know exactly when it will happen, but I do know from past experience losing loved ones that this sharp, acute, spiky grief will […]
God Speed, Guacamole
I live in a cool place. Well, not temperature-wise cool, God knows, (as I write this in the early a.m., it’s already a steamy 83 degrees), but cool, meaning residing in one of the premier places in the country that blasts rockets into space. Have to say that watching a launch never, ever gets old. […]
Somebody to Lean On – Laura, Lila, Jim and the Old Woman in Cocoa Beach
Monday Night, 6:55 pm: Jim arrives home from work. I hear music blasting from his car radio out in the driveway before he turns the car off and enters the house. In the bedroom, he changes out of his work jeans and polo shirt into shorts and another polo shirt, one that is way too […]
Happy Birthday, Joan!
July 12, 1989, Jim celebrates his 40th birthday. I know him, but not well. We are both employees at The Washington Post, he a Tech guy on the 7th floor, and me a Personnel gal on the 4th. We are still a few years away from both showing up at the same Texas-themed party thrown […]
Don’t Mope
“Hi, I’m Sarah,” says the young blonde women at the Sea Turtle Preservation Society orientation. I am early (like always) and the first one there. “Where did you park?” she asks, as I sign in. “At the CVS,” I say, and I can feel her frown before I look up and see it. “Is that […]
One Baby Girl – $114.03 Please
On what promises to be another sticky, uncomfortable day in early May, a thirty-year-old woman goes into labor. She has a toddler at home so she knows what to expect this time around. She is relatively calm as her labor progresses and she and her husband drive to The Hospital for the Women of Maryland […]
This World Will Break Your Heart – and Bind it Back Up Too
American Airlines flight #1593 touches down on the short runway of National Airport and comes to an abrupt stop. I snap this image of the Washington Monument from the window while we wait to deplane. It’s a lousy photo but it does its job – it anchors me in familiar territory. But the primary […]
Repairing Our Worlds – Gladdening Light and Frankenvac
Jim and I have been together for nearly 25 years. Like many long-term relationships, we have our ups and downs and in-betweens, commonalities and differences. Sometimes, it seems like there is an invisible natural rhythm occurring in our dynamics, like the ebb and flow of the tides that lap the shore a short walk from […]
Thank You, Thank You Very Much
It is 68 degrees. Not bad for a late January morning. Cayce agrees as he lounges outside on the top floor porch. This angle, while hardly his most flattering, sadly does accurately reflect his spreading chubbiness. This cat, however, cares not one whit about his “imperfect” body, but instead enjoys the moment for what it is […]