Hello from Ontario!

Well, hi there! I am writing this from my bed at the Pillar and Post Inn in Niagara on the Lake. Not to be confused with Niagara Falls – it is NOT the same place. (Though the Falls are not far from here.) This is wine country.

Throwback Thursday – Little House on the Prairie

If I’ve ever loved anything in my life it has been the Little House books. Last year, my mom gave me a new book, Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, and I was once again able to connect with a kindred spirit from so long ago. The book contains some early drafts of Little House in the Big […]

Remembering Gram

I wrote this post last spring, and it’s been sitting in my drafts folder ever since. I’m not sure what held me back from posting it then, but reading it now makes me smile. Everything I wrote here still holds true. I take comfort in these memories. Yesterday as I knelt in the garden to clear […]

What is my life?

As I sit down to write tonight, I’m already irritated because I can’t find the list of writing prompts I thought I’d saved somewhere on my laptop. I’m annoyed because the screen is too bright, even when I finally figure out where to go to turn it all the way down. I’m frustrated because I […]

15 Years Ago…

In September 2001, my friend Sarah and I took a trip to Oregon to visit her family, who had just relocated there. It was my first time traveling to the West Coast and my first time on a plane since I was 16. What could possibly go wrong?

The F Word

I’m talking about fear, of course. In going through a stack of paper shoved on a shelf, I found what’s written below. I wrote it a little over 4 years ago, when I was underemployed, drowning in student loans and generally feeling like a loser. You don’t always realize how far you’ve come until you […]

Pre-Birthday Thoughts

Tomorrow is my 36th birthday. Thirty-six. Damn. I don’t feel 36, although is it an age anyone really feels? What does any age feel like? The other day a younger co-worker asked me how old I was going to be on my birthday. When I said 36, her face grew somber. “Wow, that is so old!” […]

Too Ugly for Love?

Last week I received an email from a TV production company in the UK. They wanted to know if I’d be interested in talking to them about a documentary they were working on. They thought I would be a good candidate, based on some of my blog content. I figured it had something to do with […]

Hello from Houston!

Here I am in another hotel, in another city, on another work trip. That reminds me of an Ani Difranco song… in a coffee shop in a city which is every coffee shop in every city on a day which is every day The night before I left, I must have been subconsciously worrying that […]

New York, New York – 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center Plaza

On Saturday morning, we made the trek down to the World Trade Center Memorial Plaza in lower Manhattan. Please have a look at the slideshow. My thoughts on the visit are below. Going into this, I expected it to be an emotional experience. What else could it be? This was the site of the most […]