Writing
Dining Reviews
I’ve been an independent health insurance agent for about seven months now. Before I began, I had brunch with a former coworker, who’d left the dead end situation where we’d both worked as agents. I greatly appreciated her taking the time to meet with me, answer my questions, and encourage me to be far more … Continue reading
Suddenly Awakened
My remote-controlled TV activated in the middle of the night, propelling me out of bed to turn off the blaring garbage that spewed far too early in the morning for consumption. The last time that had happened, I’d returned to bed, slept some more, but was nearly late for work, which led coworkers to question … Continue reading
Day for Super Interns
Proving just how super we are, my fellow Tuesday morning intern at the Austin School of Film and I showed up to work one day wearing our strength on our chest. Not to go too deep with the Superperson analogy, but I loved how my neat, precise “S” matched my sense of organization and his … Continue reading
First Three Pages: Bad Driving
What began as a 3-minute radio drama script with one MeetUp group, transformed, after much painful Word Doc template formatting, into a movie script. After all that work, an opportunity presented itself, in the form of a script-writing competition, to get more mileage out of my effort, “Bad Driving.” The Austin Film Festival usually hosts … Continue reading
Crossing Borders
I’ve crossed many international borders, starting with being born in Japan on a military base. I don’t remember entering The US since I was barely over a year old, but I didn’t leave The States again until I was 22 as a Peace Corps Volunteer and later as an expat math and science teacher at … Continue reading
Pockets
My rants about the fashion industry are legendary. One reoccurring theme is the absence of pockets in women’s clothing. Then there’s the ire that fake decorative pockets on women’s clothing causes me. Whereas men’s clothing has pockets on damn near everything, including their pajamas. With this raging argument always brewing inside me, I went to … Continue reading
Set in Motion
As soon as Trump was elected, the resistance began. Trump supporters called us many names, including “snowflakes.” Throughout 2017, the snowflakes grew in number and energy, creating a blizzard. One of the most powerful storms: The Me Too Movement. A spotlight has now been shined on the open-secret incubation of sexual predators across workplace environments. … Continue reading
Aunt Teresa’s Burlesque Dictionary
Last Christmas, when my immediate family got together, I had a few conversations with one of my nephews, who was 25 at the time. During our conversations, he asked me what certain words, like “ambiguous” and “prolonged,” meant since I’d peppered my conversations with such vocabulary. At one point, I told him that if he’d read more, he’d … Continue reading
Internet Porn Birth Control
A male friend recently told me of an alarming crisis: younger men have become so used to having multiple tabs of different pornographic websites open, which they rotate through several times in one setting that they cannot get an erection when they are in the presence of a naked woman since they are under stimulated. … Continue reading
Interactive Life Puzzles
Life is composed of many pieces that can be put together in several different ways, unlike a static jigsaw puzzle where you separate out all the edges, put them together and fill in the rest, using the convenient pretty picture on the box. Those puzzles can only be done in one way, regardless of your … Continue reading