Unemployed

I lost my job yesterday. It’s not a huge job, mind you.  I’ve been working on and off at our local children’s art studio for five years.  Jill and I started working together after she allowed me to host a Kyle Vincent concert at her studio in late 2006.  I didn’t know her then; a [...]

East or West?

“Well, which is it?” I asked, frustrated, impatient, and bitter. R had spent the last month traveling to job interviews throughout the company.  He’d been to Baltimore, he’d been to a town in Connecticut, he’d been to Los Angeles.  It was so different than when he’d done the same before we’d moved here; those interviews [...]

Shock and Awe

I was standing in my classroom at the University one chilly, March night, staring out into the night sky. Tonight I was teaching Web Design 101 to twelve adult students at varying skill levels.  I loved my classes at the university these days; I loved putting on real clothes and make up and being someone [...]

What Had I Missed?

I sat there, with my baby in my arms, wondering. Had I missed something?  Nothing seemed wrong with him.  He smiled, he ate, he held my finger as he nursed, he sat up in his high chair just like my other two children had.  Nothing seemed different to me, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. [...]

New Job

“I am sure they’ll take you,” Annette had told me last spring.  ”You have an even better background than I do for this sort of thing.” She was referring to the classes she taught at Miami University; not the big campus half an hour north of where we lived, but the local satellite campus in [...]

Testing, Testing….

I was sitting in the cafeteria of the middle school in town, a number two pencil in my purse and a bottle of water in front of me.  I looked at the woman next to me, similar in age and possibly station and life, and smiled. “So are you already a teacher?” she asked me, [...]

The Girl With The Website

I sat down at my computer after sending Zach to school, as I had done most days since moving to Oklahoma, and started working. It had been two years now since I’d started our little fan club website for Rick Springfield with my friend Dawn.  We’d started on her computer in her tiny apartment with [...]

New

I was sitting across from Amy at the Aspen Coffee Shop, where she clearly knew everyone, and they clearly loved her.  It was the type of  funky place that I’d heard about but never lived near enough to frequent:  tables, a bar and a big sofa, exposed brick walls and folk singers on Friday nights. [...]

The World Stopped Turning

“Are you all set for tomorrow?”  Julie asked from across the lunch table.   One of the things I loved best about my schedule at work was that all of my coworkers, those that shared the same students that I taught, all had the same scheduled breaks throughout the day.  This set up was intended to [...]

House Hunting

There were two or three hotels in Stillwater, Oklahoma in January, 1999.   We were holed up at the Best Western, which we had been told was the nicest of the lot.  I looked out the window at the lights below, marveling at how in the distance they simply stopped. Z hadn’t been exactly thrilled at [...]