Sue Monk Kidd, My New BFF

One of the reasons I love reading so much is because of the instant connection you can feel with someone, even though you’ve never met them.

Right now I’m in the middle of reading Traveling with Pomegranates, a memoir by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor in which they travel abroad and explore foreign countries, each other, and themselves. In the book, Kidd is about to turn 50 and is looking back at where she’s been and forward to where she might be headed. I’m getting ready to turn 47 and doing much the same thing. I can also totally relate to Kidd’s pre-menopausal insomnia and overwhelming (often frantic) desire to re-locate, though I’d not seen a connection between these two conditions until she suggested it.

“Raymond Burr’s Legs”…Get It?

Sometimes being around students who are so much younger than I am makes me feel young…and sometimes it just makes me feel like an old fart.

I’ve been a college professor for about eleven years now, and most of my students are between 19 and 22 years old. The odd thing about teaching students who never seem to age is that it makes me feel that I’m not aging either…at least it has until recently.

Reading, Writing, and It’s All in the Wrist

Did you know you can open a beer bottle with a piece of paper? You can also use another beer bottle or a spoon. I learned this one night when all that stood between me and the Hefeweizen in my fridge was a thin metal bottle cap. Sure, there’s a lot of useless info on the internet, but one man’s “useless info” is another man’s (or woman’s) ice cold beer.

Chivalry Is Not Dead, Thank You Very Much

mahalo	SPASIBO	danke
arigato		grazie
	gracias merci
thank you		obrigado

Along with hordes of students this week, I made my way back to school. One of the colleges where I teach English has a small satellite campus (where I usually teach) and a much larger main campus where I find myself this semester.

It’s been a bit of an adjustment from being able to access everything I need in one place to now having to wander in and out of several different buildings to pick up my mail, hold my office hours, get to class, and so on. One consequence of this situation, though, has left me pleasantly surprised: Wherever I go, young men are holding doors open for me.

Nap Attack…Come and Get Me!

Most mornings when I leave the house, my cat is reclined in a truly relaxing pose. More often than not, when I return home hours later, I find him in exactly the same position. What a life, eh? This always makes me feel a tinge of jealousy. What is it about The Nap that makes it so wonderful? I’m not quite sure, but I do know what my favorite types of nap are.   

A Peek at the Woman Behind the Curtain

OK, so I admit to being a bit of a perfectionist. And, yes, it sometimes keeps me from starting projects…like writing this post. I felt this first post was an important one because it had to accomplish so many things. It had to introduce me, set the blog’s tone, welcome readers, and give an idea of what kinds of topics I’d chat about. So, how was I supposed to do all that in just a few hundred words? My heart raced and my mind spun, but unfortunately my typing fingers remained very, very still.