Sludge. It’s a good word. Satisfying. And it sounds like what it is. You know. Onomatopoeia. And right now, while I don’t think I could pronounce onomatopoeia (or anything much over two syllables), sludge works fine for me. It describes the sensation of my brain function, not to mention the manner in which I am […]
All-Nighter
You know when you look at a document and you see what you want to see? You know when you pull someone else into the process, and that person looks, and verifies what you (think you) saw? You know when you check one last time out of some deeply rooted obsessive quality, or perhaps a […]
Broken Fingers
Objects of Beauty Have you ever seen a Buddha’s Hand Lemon? It’s an extraordinary thing, somewhat floral in form, with curling tentacles. But from the side it has a squid-like shape, and resembles a prop in a sci-fi movie. I held one yesterday for the first time. I was fascinated by its waxy surface and […]
No Knowledge
It was an odd night of even odder dreams; an odd night because I slept eight hours (exceptional), and odd dreams as I found myself sitting behind a massive wooden desk, part of a management directive to motivate my staff with plastic boy toys. Now, now – not those toys. Strange morphing, scoping, bending wheeled […]
Eggs. Baskets. Now what?
Here’s your task. You’re in a big room. It’s filled with the usual – chairs, tables, lamps, books. Your mission? Get from one side to the other and back again, carrying a dozen eggs, in or out of their carton. You have your choice of two baskets, along with bubble wrap and a few other […]
Backups
We’ve experienced our share of nasty computer issues this past year; recovery was slow and expensive – money I could ill afford. But given that I make my way through life tap-tapping on a keyboard, and my kid needed to finish out his high school years tap-tapping as well, costly or not, fixing and replacing […]
Spinning Your Wheels
There are times your goal is visible, and it seems, just out of reach. If I can push myself a little longer, you think, and so you do. You push. Hard. You develop a habit of pushing yourself that becomes the routine of your mornings and your afternoons, the standard transition into night’s long hours, […]
Doubt
A child takes her parent’s hand at the age of two or three, with confidence. She looks up and smiles. She doesn’t doubt; the world assures her that her parent will hold on tightly, and keep her safe. But no one stays a child forever. The world is complicated. We learn to move beyond ourselves […]
Fresh Eggs: 1 Mile
Nudging my kid, shaking my kid, waking my kid. As usual. Making the lunch, brewing the coffee, rushing to get a jump on my writing. As usual. My laptop flipped open, and ready to rock. As usual. Flipped open… and nothing. “Do backups,” said the adult voice. That was last night, about 12:30, as I […]
No coasting, no toasting. (How to survive chronic lateness.)
I could swear Kim Zolciak was singing Tardy for the Party in my dream. Or was it just the alarm? That horrible tinny pop music that my kid uses to wake him? Only it never wakes him. Me? Another story. So I start the morning routine. Yawning. My eyes burning. Coffee. Even the aroma helps. […]