When I was in my twenties, I got into one of those relationships that was all passion (okay, and sex) with very little else holding it together. The first time I came over to this boyfriend’s house and up to his bedroom, there was a striking absence of anything but a bed. This new lover […]
When I was 24, I had knee surgery that landed me with a few weeks on crutches. I was in a good amount of pain, so I was taking Vicodin as one does in these situations. One day, I was hobbling home on my crutches when a voice called out to me from the front […]
Lately, I’ve become a bit obsessed with reducing energy use in our house. It started with the refrigerator, and me finding out that it uses three times the amount of energy a standard new one does. Then, I discovered that a good chunk of energy was wasted by having our TV and its accompanying recording […]
Dogs have many different reactions to fear- some cower, some attack. For years, we had the kind of dog that reacted to her fear by attacking- and she had a bottomless well of fear and anxiety. Liver was a muscular, hyper Dalmatian who came into the world with faulty wiring in her nervous system- constantly tense […]
One day, my husband and I were riding our bicycles around town. We arrived at a crosswalk that has a sensor for bikes, and when you ride over it, lights on the “Pedestrian Crossing” sign flash, and cars are expected to stop as you bike through. As we approached, the lights flashed, and we started […]
When I was in college, I rode around on a ten-speed that may as well have been a one-speed. I’d had this bike for years, and never learned how to change gears on it, so whatever gear it had been in when I got it, that was the gear I’d bike around on. One day, […]
When planting a garden, it is tempting to put in full-sized plants so that your garden is completely filled in as soon as you are done planting. The problem with this is that very soon, your garden will be overcrowded, and you’ll need to divide and thin many of your plants. Dividing is hard work, […]
I have only gone rock-climbing once in my life, and that was enough for me. My siblings adore this activity, so they introduced it to me one year at Joshua Tree. When I reached the top of my first wall and it was time to come back down, I felt completely stuck. I was roped […]
The first place I lived after college was Eugene, Oregon- a town with many unusual but endearing characters. One day, my roommate came home and said, “I met this funny guy. He calls himself a botanical revolutionary, because he likes to plant dandelion seeds in sidewalk cracks and perfect lawns.” As coincidence would have it, […]
One day, I was washing a window, which is an activity I don’t much care for. I was in a big hurry to be done with it. Suddenly, the window fell onto my thumb and I was stuck. For a moment, I went straight into denial, took the cloth from my trapped hand and continued […]