As many of us continue to shelter in place or work from home, mental health professionals recommend keeping a schedule to lend a sense of normalcy and constancy. Here’s how I’ve painstakingly laid out my days during this extended time at home. 6am: Rise early to write The New Project. 6:05am: Decide that I need to get myself in the Writing Zone. 6:10 … Continue reading My Very Busy Schedule
A couple of years ago, I was in a doctor’s office waiting room doing what I usually do: reading the true crime section of People, perusing Us Weekly to see if stars really are just like me, and considering what height I should claim to be. I was taking a reading pit-stop, thumbing through a piece about the royal family, when I heard the nurse … Continue reading Where the Armenians Are
My sister-in-law just delivered a beautiful baby boy, which brought back memories of one of my own pregnancies, also known as Kathy’s Era of Perpetual Annoyance. Maybe it was the hormones. Maybe it was the nine-plus pounds of baby squashing my internal organs. Most likely it was the incessant attention dedicated to my midsection, which had swollen to such impressively bulbous proportions that it inspired … Continue reading Comments? No comment.
I’m not a very sentimental person. I’ve shoved heirlooms into closets, squirreled away family photos and pitched old love letters in the recycling bin, all in the name of chaos control. Of course, afterwards I’m usually filled with two-slices-of-cake-and-three-glasses-of-champagne level regret. But that doesn’t curtail my enthusiasm for tyrannical tidying. The exception: Christmas decorations. Some people decorate with taste and elegance. I deck our ranch-style … Continue reading Ho ho hoooo boy. My holiday decor highlights.
For most people, the holidays call to mind shining lights, steaming mugs of cocoa, gingerbread humanoids, and feasts that call for elastic waistbands. For me, they conjure up the memory of my friend sailing out of our second-story window. Let me explain. A few days after Thanksgiving, my mom left 12-ish-year-old me and my best friend alone for a couple of hours. She instructed us … Continue reading The Power of Imagination
Kathleen (a.k.a. Kathy) here with a little real-life mystery. A few years ago, I went to the mailbox and pulled out the usual jumble of 80% post-consumer-content papers. Bills. Statements. An assortment of catalogs. One #10 envelope caught my eye: a letter from the Multnomah County Circuit Court. I tore it open in the driveway and read. I was being called to appear as a … Continue reading Name That Mystery
Kathleen (a.k.a. Kathy) here, coming at you from the fast and furious first days back at school. (For my kids, not me. Although I do love a good pencil case.) In last month’s post, I mentioned that the secret sauce in my recipe for sanity includes time parked in front of the television. After a few years sans TV, I’ve been making up for lost … Continue reading The Beauty in Ordinary Things
When I do a reading or other author-y event, I tend to hear the same questions: “Where do you get your inspiration?” “Is Maggie based on a real person?” “Where’s the bathroom?” I think my favorite is, “With work, author duties, and a family, how do you not go crazy?” I laugh maniacally at that one, causing the question-asker to back slowly away as if … Continue reading Sanity Savers
I tend to avoid personal growth like the plague. Or pleated pants. If something’s going to inspire soul-searching, introspection or the pain of change, I’m out. But Vickie’s great post about Twitter got me thinking, which led to that dreaded introspection—and a discovery. I’m afraid of social media. I’m terrified of Twitter, petrified of Pinterest, and intimidated by Instagram. I can Facebook. Kind of. … Continue reading Social Media for the Socially Awkward (AKA: me)
O Typo, I know ye well. You are a constant companion. A feared adversary. The source of “send now” trepidation. The raison d’etre of my delete key. The typo and I go way back, all the way to tenth grade, the year my father insisted I learned to type. My father is A Man of a Certain Generation who, as an attorney, had an office … Continue reading Ode to the Typo
Confession: I’m a terrible cook. Actually, that’s an understatement. I’m abysmally awful at cooking. I have seven dinners that I can make with consistent success that don’t involve help from the Hamburger Helper hand. But that doesn’t stop me from poring over #foodstagram posts or oohing and ahhing over master chef creations. I also love to buy cookbooks. For Christmas, I bought my dad … Continue reading Food for the Soul
There seems to be cosmic power in the number three. Triple crown. Triumvirate. The three Rs. And let’s not forget the three pigs, the Three Musketeers (the men AND the candy,) and those bastions of slapstick, the Three Stooges. However, the triple-powered axiom that’s been on my mind the most is “third time’s the charm.” Why? My third book came out this month. As … Continue reading Third time’s…the charm?
Chicks on the Case 