• Swimming with the Nuns…

    …is over. About ten years ago, Neighbor Mary and I started swimming at a convent/conference center near my house. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we went to water aerobics at eight-thirty a.m. and then often, I’d swim laps with the sisters on Wednesdays and Fridays. I love to swim…I don’t follow astrology, so I have no idea if Libras are water people, as opposed to air and earth and fire. I just know I love being in the water. I always have. I learned to swim in Lake Michigan. My mom taught all four of us kids when we’d go up to Muskegon State Park for camping weekends.  She insisted we all…

  • The Eternal Underwear Dilemma

    Men, avert your eyes. This is a strictly girly post. I’m serious…it involves panties… Why is it that when I finally find a bra or panties that I adore wearing, that are comfortable, wash like a breeze, and feel like a part of me, they suddenly stop making them? I swear this happens to me all the time. About five years ago, after a long, long panty search, I finally found some cotton-and-lace cuties that fit well, didn’t creep up my butt (giving me an annoying wedgie), and were reasonably priced. I bought a dozen pair, mentally preparing myself for their inevitable demise. I loved them, so of course, they’d…

  • My Language Is Deteriorating…

    …seriously. I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I have a good vocabulary. My mom insisted that we have extensive vocabularies and use them appropriately. I’m a whiz at spelling and usually if someone asks me what a word means, I can come up with the correct definition without running to a dictionary. I’m a bodacious Scrabble and Boggle player. My grasp of language and it’s appropriate use is  part of why I’m a terrific copyeditor (I have clients who’ll testify, honest!). So it surprises me to find that I’m using expletives more frequently as I get older. And I’m not talking about the occasional “crap” or “damn.” I’m…

  • Down Time

    I finished a big editing gig today and I don’t have anything new coming until next week—that’s unusual for me. Normally, one job follows another and sometimes they even overlap. It’s a good thing to be so busy and to know that work is coming in and that my clients need me. I love that feeling. But today, I heaved a large sigh of relief after I sent the invoice for this project…not because of the project—it was fine. Rather, it was because I was completely jacked up about having a few days to work on my novels. So, did I stay at the computer and write? Nope. I did…

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  • Internet Hypochondria…Gee, Ya Think?

    I hate, hate, hate being so body aware, something that has just happened since I reached the age of menopause. No, I’m not talking about my weight or my body’s appearance this time. I’m talking about the inside of my body. Every little twinge or ache or pain or gurgle sends me rushing to the Web to figure out what’s “wrong” with me. My shoulder hurts and my left arm aches—dear heaven, I’m having a heart attack! Doesn’t it say right there on womenandheartattack.com that left arm pain is one of the first signs in a woman? Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod—take an aspirin, call 911… My mom died young of a…

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  • I’m sad

    I don’t know how many people remember Joe Brooks, but he died this past weekend. He was a jingle writer and the composer who wrote “You Light Up My Life,” the song that made Debby Boone famous. That was good song, but it got overplayed and overused and became almost banal before we got bored and moved on. But I remember Joe Brooks for an obscure, sappy movie he made and starred in called If Ever I See You Again. The acting was…not good, the premise rather silly and sophomoric, but in 1978, I went to see that movie six times in the few weeks it played in my town.…

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  • Still here…

    Well, I woke up this morning to birds singing and the sun trying to burn through a little spring fog. I was still in my own bed, in my own house  but I didn’t assume, as others might, that the Rapture had not happened and I didn’t get to go to heaven. I checked Yahoo! News and a couple of other sites for verification. Nope, it appears that we are all still here on Earth. I’m so glad! I like it here, I like my life and my job and my friends and family. I like my little garden out in front of my house on the prairie. I like…

  • Post-Rapture Musings (a little early…)

    Okay, I confess, I’ve had a tiny knot in my stomach all day today and it’s still there. I don’t actually believe that the Rapture is going to happen today–my common sense and my good Christian Church Disciples of Christ upbringing have come to the rescue every time I started to clutch. I know that people have been predicting the End of the World as We Know It for centuries, but thanks to the Internet, this is the first time I’ve been so aware of one of these calls to arms. A part of me has to give the folks who spread the word some credit–they did one heckuva job…