It’s Still There

I heard from him the other day. Not unsolicited, of course.  No, I’ve hardly ever heard from him out of the blue like that.  Even when I was working for him, emails from Rick Springfield only appeared in my box with the inevitable re: in front of whatever subject title I had been writing about.  [...]

Haters Gonna Hate

I chuckled looking at the computer screen, nearly choking on my first cup of coffee.  Was that the best they could do? This week our town held its annual budget vote.  In our tiny New England town, the residents have to approve the spending plan each and every year at the polls.  It’s called an [...]

Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast.  If there was a theme to Mr. Tymrak’s tenth grade Honors History class, it was that.  Compare and contrast. Every assignment could be boiled down to those two simple words.  Every lesson required us to compare and contrast people, situations, policies.  Find the similarities and the differences.  Lay them out.  Intertwine them, [...]

Beach Musings

I was sitting on our patio at our beach condo, the day after Christmas, huddling against the chilly breeze.  I loved our Florida Christmases, with R’s parents and my father all together; it was our new family tradition.  Most people went to the beach in the summer, but we went for our Christmas holiday, and [...]

The Question and the Answer

It was a cool and rainy November morning in Connecticut.  I’d sent the kids off to school and should be walking on the treadmill to start getting serious about dropping the extra weight I’d been slowly gaining over the last few years.  But I couldn’t stop thinking about what was going on in Michigan today.  [...]

Instant Message of Pain

I sat in front of the television, laptop balanced on my lap two days later.  It was ten or so, the little ones in bed, my husband in Michigan.  He worked there now, about eight days a month, him having been given the job after all but it being determined that it wasn’t a big [...]

My Former Vs. My Current Life

So…this is where I always thought the blog would end.  “My Former Life”…well the last entry was about an event that occurred 11 months ago, my 40th birthday.  An event that was the whole idea behind this blog, hoping to find some peace and closure over the event of my impending 40th birthday.  And honestly, [...]

Welcome to Politics

“What the hell is this?” I said into the phone while simultaneously scanning the news story online.  I wasn’t exactly used to seeing my name in the news, though it had happened several times through my education advocacy work.  But this, this was different. It was September, and my three girlfriends and I were running [...]

Make It A Good One

“Oh, boy,” I said as I walked off of the elevator and saw the Holiday Inn’s lobby full of people. “What?” asked my friend Sue, slowing her pace and stepping off to the side with me. “He’ll be here any minute.  That’s why all of those women are congregated there.”  My eyes scanned the group [...]

The Taste of Victory

“I can’t fucking believe it!” were the words of our illustrious First Selectman on the night of the second budget vote in April, 2008. We were standing in the small 1970s era hallway that led to the Town Clerk’s office on the night of the vote.  Those of us who had spent the last two [...]