Photoshop and Memories

Amy greeted me warmly at the coffee shop.  ”Oh my goodness, look at your belly!  You really have popped since I saw you last!” It was true.  The last time she’d seen me was late October, when we’d driven seven hours north to Omaha to see Corey Hart open up for Celine Dion in concert. [...]

Another Try

R had been none too happy about my summer of music.  In addition to the three Rick Springfield concerts I’d attended, my new friend Amy had convinced me to take a three day holiday to Montreal, Canada to go see Corey Hart in concert.  Corey Hart had released new music in Canada, having done some [...]

Going Crazy

“So what are you doing tomorrow?” R asked as he took another helping of homemade macaroni and cheese. It had been two weeks, and I thought I was going to go crazy.  I’d painted the china cabinet, unpacked every box, made homemade meals every evening, kept the house neat as a pin, planted flowers that [...]

Circles

I was sitting on the edge of the curb, watching Z get suited up for this summer’s sport, roller hockey. Z loved hockey; living in the Detroit area, one thing you couldn’t escape was hockey, especially when the Red Wings were doing well.  It was something that Z and R shared together, watching the games; [...]

Times They Are A Changing

I vowed things would be different. My mother was a living example that people could change.  She was still losing weight; she’d lost forty or so pounds already.  She looked fantastic, had a newfound sense of confidence, and a calmer way about her.  Granted, she still had a cigarette in her hands every time you [...]

Good Clean Fun

I was headed to Dawn’s after school one day late that fall. Dawn had moved out of her parents’ house last spring when their condo was foreclosed upon.  My mother and I moved her into my bedroom just days before the rest of the family’s possessions were piled on the curb outside and they were [...]

The Tao of Love

One of the things I loved about having my own car and my own money was the freedom.  If I decided I wanted to bake something, I could run to the store and get the ingredients instead of making, say, bread pudding because that was the only recipe I had all of the ingredients for.  [...]

Bittersweet

It had been over a month since I had heard from my dad. My brother was released from the hospital and enrolled in the private, live in Catholic school. On the weekends my father would take him back to the house he shared with his partner. I didn’t see him, I didn’t want to see [...]

Bye Bye to the Australian

One of the other things that happened in the summer of 1985 was that I started to lose a little of my insane admiration for Rick Springfield. I’d been writing letters regularly to Mindy Hart, Corey Hart’s mother. She wrote back about once a month or every six weeks with some sage advice for me. [...]

Late Night Part Two

My great aunt thought it might be fun for me to spend a few days with my other great aunt and uncle. I guess she was feeling a little sorry for me; after all, not too many fourteen year old girls enjoy spending weeks on end with no other teenagers to hang out with. I [...]