I’m still dreaming on my blogging year for 2016. I sure hope the muse gives me a clue soon because here is my last post from the reader columnist gig with The News Tribune: In the summer of 2006, I vacationed at Seaside, Oregon, with my husband and young son. I had finished my degree… Read more
2015
I’m a bit behind in publishing (republishing) my latest column for The News Tribune. Earlier, I wrote of Carol Decker on this blog in the Triple Amputation School of Beauty. This latest version is my favorite, maybe because it’s more polished or perhaps because it’s most recent. I have one essay left for The Tribune and am… Read more
I wrote this piece for The News Tribune weeks before the latest shooting in Oregon at a community college like the one where I work. That horrific tragedy happened in a class like many I have taught. I am not at all sure how to process this most recent ‘extraordinary day,’ and am still working… Read more
Tomorrow is my first day back to teaching after my late summer/fall break. I’m nervous. After thinking about juggling teaching, writing, family, and critters, I’ve decided to cut back on blogging for a stretch. I have the usual reasons which you might have, too, when too many things call out to you to be done… Read more
Last spring, I read The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown for Pierce County Reads. The story wrapped me up, and I couldn’t help but tell my hubby. I told Phil of the rowers from the University of Washington. I told him about the rower Joe Rantz and the odds he beat after taking care of… Read more
Yes, I said three beginnings. The Glitter who first stole my heart refused to love our dog or even to acknowledge his right to coexist in our home. She hissed, spit and charged at him even when he was cowering three floors away from her kittens and quaking in his doggie boots. Yesterday, I scrunched down… Read more
(A short break from the Kitty Channel) I listen to the Rob Cast every week without fail and this past week gave me some way to pay back the deep joy I’ve gotten from his words. In his podcasts, Rob speaks of how to move from a false shallow happy light, to a place of crushing… Read more
Caution: This story involves poop. I have found that poop is always involved when working with little people and animals, so maybe you won’t be surprised. But I thought I should warn you. My friend LeAnna, a horse lady from way back, said: “Fostering kittens is like having a tiny herd of horses in your house… Read more