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Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”  I was thinking today that I’d like to read a memoir written by a woman who struggled with addiction.  The title would be “Just Chillin’: One Woman’s Very Easy, Completely Unbelievable Life.”  And the blurb on …

It’s two o’clock in the morning, and I’m working—well, I’m writing, but I’m about to start working.  No one else in the company I work for is working right now; in fact, I don’t think any of them are even awake.  I feel a bit like the last elf in Santa’s workshop, still working long after all the other elves …

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  The dishes are done, the house is quiet, and my cats are arranged around me, sleeping.  I’m grateful for this pause before the Christmas happenings start, well, happening.  Sometimes I feel like I go to bed on Thanksgiving and wake up on January 2nd, dazed and wondering exactly how the holidays flew by so …

Monty and I went out to dinner tonight with Mom and Dad and our niece, Marky, to celebrate the 48th anniversary of Mom and Dad’s first date.  We drove to a restaurant about an hour away, so we got to talk on the way there.  Mom told the story of their first date—how Dad asked her, what they wore—48 years …

Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and I’m seeing commercials that show happy families gathered around a festively set dinner table, ready for their turkey and all the trimmings.  Every sitcom I watch has scenes of a family Thanksgiving in it.  I used to hate TV at Thanksgiving and at Christmas because my life wasn’t anything like those happy …

Monty and I left at 5:30 this morning to get to my doctor’s office by eight.  For the second time in six weeks, I had such a bad flare-up of asthma that I needed to get my lungs checked and start another round of steroids.  “Flare-up” is a misnomer, actually; it sounds so benign.  My “flare-ups” involve three different kinds …

A few nights ago, I was on Facebook and saw a quiz that was called “How High Maintenance Are You?”  The questions were, among other things, about how many pairs of shoes and purses you own, how often you get massages and manicures, and if you use self-tanner.  I have one purse and about four pairs of shoes—I’d much rather …

Our cats’ favorite time of day is at bedtime, when I give them their treats.  Each cat gets treats in their own way:  Seamus gets a handful on the kitchen floor.  Carrick loves to chase them, so I toss his treats, one by one, across the room.  And then there’s Mackin.  He is, as always, reticent, unsure, and watchful.  I …

When I was a teenager, I got my first pair of glasses.  I walked out of the eyeglasses store and was shocked. I had obviously had no idea how bad my vision was.  The world looked completely different—especially the colors.  It was like the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy’s house finally lands after the tornado.  She picks …

Dear Lord, I come to you tonight, confused and sad and, yes, angry.  I, along with the rest of the world, watched the news on Sunday and saw that twenty-six people had been murdered at a church in Texas.  Twenty-six people.  At a church.  Why, God?  I keep coming back to this question, again and again.  Why?  Why these people?  …