Writing
Beestung
Around the turn of the 21st century, a bee stung me. My entire right hand swelled. Mom recommended I make a paste out of meat tenderizer and put it on my affected hand, but a few sun salutations had a more dramatic effect. The extra fluid pulsed and coursed through my lymphatic vessels during that yoga … Continue reading
What Are the Odds
We are all winners! Born into this world already having defied tremendous odds. Don’t believe it? Consider this: healthy men can ejaculate between 40 million to 1.2 billion sperm cells and healthy women will ovulate between 300 to 400 eggs during their reproductive lifetime; so the fact that we’re all here means we’ve already beat … Continue reading
Handmade Laundry Bag
Last Memorial Day weekend, we entered the fifth straight week of heavy rains, flooding and tornado watches. What a wonderful opportunity to craft! Graduation season was right around the corner. I researched popular items to give a high school graduate and jumped on the opportunity to make personalized laundry bag for my niece. The plot … Continue reading
Injury Reunion
Every physical trauma I’ve experienced in my younger days have returned to reminisce in my middle-agehood. Blissfully forgotten skinned knees and elbows, deep wounds embedded into my bones, muscles and joints, aging me from the inside out. I may not look my age, but I feel it with every mysterious new pain. The faint echo … Continue reading
Amazon Gender
Some say the word “Amazon” derived from Greek, meaning “without breasts.” Others prefer to derive “Amazon” from Armenian, meaning “moon-women.” Of course, I didn’t know any of that when I was six and wanted to be an Amazon when I grew up. I was fascinated by their strength and fighting skills. A few years later … Continue reading
Bloody Mary Research Addendum
After “concluding” my Bloody Mary research at a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar with a group of friends a few months ago, rumors had it that I’d missed a good spot on 6th Street. I wanted to pick a time to invite friends to hit this dive burger bar when all of our schedules coincided. Turns … Continue reading
Bad Saturday Night
When opportunity lands on my doorstep, I have to seize the moment. In this case, I went out onto my balcony to retrieve something from the storage closet and saw this intriguing scene in the parking lot. How could the fiction writer in me resist? Everyone has a history, comprised of many “remember when moments.” The key … Continue reading
Adult Fairy Tales
I’ve been struggling with my second novel, The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa, for the past five years. Along the way, I’ve experienced some powerful insights. The first came when I concluded that I didn’t have the means to pay a graphic artist. My solution? Paint the beginning of each chapter, which always began with the title … Continue reading
Fools’ Paradise
Welcome to the Land of Milk and Honey. Home of the Brave. Land of the Free. Where the streets are paved in gold. The sun’s always shining unless we’re dancing in the rain. So turn that frown upside down. This is no place for any Ned Negatives or Debbie Downers. This is Par-a-dise, baby! Unlike … Continue reading
Dollars & Sense
Strutting my way to Bikram yoga one day, I noticed a quarter lying on the sidewalk. Barely breaking my stride, I swooped down to pick it up. To my dismay, it was a nickel. Now, was this just a case of objects appearing bigger from a distance? Or the sign of the financial times that … Continue reading