The Meaning of the Day

I have spent the last fifteen years feeling like an oddity on this particular day.  Every year, as Thanksgiving rolled around, I’d book the Thursday and Friday off work — it just felt wrong to spend those two days at my desk — and search high and low for a turkey in November (a what?), [...]

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The Elephant that No-one Mentions

The birdfeeder, despite being filled with our own personal deadly poison, has proved to be a great hit.  Today, we’ve had visits from a squirrel, a gentleman and lady cardinal, a junko, and several chickadees.  When my mother rang, I let E1 answer the phone.
“Grandma!  We’ve had a squirrel!  And a cardinal!  And a chipmunk!  [...]

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Trusting My Gut

Ever since I gently, though through clenched teeth, explained to my mother that M and I had decided we didn’t feel comfortable with her taking the children out on her own, I know she has been working hard to “earn back her Grandma card,” as she put it.  I hadn’t planned to tell her this [...]

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This House

This house has central heat — so nice on snowy days.
This house’s windows don’t rattle when the wind blows, and they don’t have a gap between the top and bottom that’s so big you can drop a butter knife through it.
This house has a living room and a dining room and a family room and [...]

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No More Spying

My landlady-until-last-week came round today, to have a look at our new house and to collect her keys.  It was a relief to hand them over and thus end my obligation to her.  I mean, I appreciate very much the wonderful opportunity to live in her house these past months while we looked for a [...]

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Not There Yet

Something’s gone wrong.  I should be feeling overjoyed, now that we are in our new house, our own house, this that I have wanted and wished for and dreamed of over the last two decades in ill-fitting rentals.  But I am completely taken aback by my emotions.  These past few days, I have felt less [...]

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APB

Forgive my silence.  We moved into our house on Friday and now it is all boxes, mess, confusion, and chaos here.  And three days without internet access — I know how crazy that sounds, but I have come out the other side relatively unscathed.
Normal blogging will resume soon.  In the meantime, excuse me while I [...]

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This Change I can Believe In

When Barack Obama brought Michelle and their daughters out onto the stage in Chicago before he gave his victory speech, I surprised myself by being overcome by emotion.  As tears welled up in my eyes, M looked at me quizzically and asked, “But…  was he the one you wanted to win?”  He knew I hadn’t [...]

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I Voted for the Wrong Man

I have angonised my way through this entire election, loving and loathing both candidates for different reasons but in equal measure.  There are key issues which are critically important to me and, unfortunately, the candidates had neatly divvied them up between the two of them, leaving me in a quandary.  If I vote for one [...]

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Nothing Comes

I want to write something — have been wanting to for days — but I have a total writer’s block at the moment.  I sit and stare at the screen and…  nothing comes.  No doubt it is because we are in the midst of moving and I am massively preoccupied with all of that entails.  [...]

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