I was riding my bicycle to choir practice this morning, and suddenly I smelled something (what? I do not know) that sucked me through a vortex of a decade and spat me out onto the sopping green grass of a foggy spring morning in England. It was 1999, in April, just a few days after…
One Sentence Story – The Vigil
In body I attend class, kiss my children, type notes into my computer, prepare for the end of term, but in spirit I am sitting vigil with the already-grieving mother in the ICU, a tiny dehydrated hand in hers, the quiet hum of machines the only noise as the room grows dark around them (around…
A Tale of Two Cities
I once caused a kerfuffle at my old job in Roxboro, North Carolina by getting permission to make a company picnic BYOB. One of my employees (a manager) pulled me aside and said that he didn’t feel comfortable allowing any alcohol at a party that children and families would attend. He wasn’t alone. I ended…
Another Moment
In the midst of end-of-term chaos, these beautiful moments keep ambushing me. Last night the Professor saddled up the pup for his evening walkies, and I decided to corral our increasingly active boys into their double stroller and join him. It was either that or continue to chase Liam around the room and scrape dog…
A Moment
Last week, while the husband and baby were out of town, Jack and I went to a friend’s house for a cookout. At the cookout, the host had a dozen oysters on the half shell, and upon discovering that they are (a) delicious, and (b) omg amazingly cheap (Deepwater Horizon what?), we decided to repeat…