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My Response to Search Questions
One of the nice little perks you get when blogging on WordPress is that you can see what search phrases people have typed in to find your blog. Sometimes these come in the form of questions or strange statements and I long to have the ability to contact these people and respond. Never fear. Your…
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“Even Cheerleaders get Pimples on their Behinds.”
Those words of wisdom came from my mother on a day when the teenaged me was lamenting the fact that I wasn’t popular, and also complaining about a pimple on my posterior. When insight is put forth so colorfully, it tends to stick with you for life. And while it was meant to apply to…
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George Zimmerman Goes Free: It’s a Florida Thing. You Wouldn’t Understand.
George Zimmerman was found not guilty on Saturday. To be honest I was expecting riots in the streets. I wouldn’t blame them. I was outraged, too. As a Floridian I am embarrassed for my state. Yet again. It happens with annoying frequency. I was also mortified when Florida helped “elect” George Bush. We are the…
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A Lesson in Subtext
The other day someone asked me why I keep a rusty old jar opener in the gadget drawer in my kitchen. She was probably expecting a short answer. She should have known better. That jar opener may not look like much, but it means a lot to me. My mother gave it to me the…
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My Prayer
I am grateful this day for the rain that sustains me for the sun that nurtures me, for the wind that buffets me. I wish to give back more than I take from this world, value more than that which is has been given me and shore up that which has always endured me.…
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The Art of Job Hunting
After getting a degree in Dental Laboratory Technology and Management and applying to 198 Orthodontic Laboratories throughout the country, I give you this graphically symbolic depiction of my hunt for employment: Rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, I’d love to hire you but I’m going out of business, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection,…
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On Being HIV Negative
June 27th is National HIV Testing Day here in the US. You didn’t know that? Neither did I. It really should be advertised a lot more, because it’s really important. In point of fact, every day should be National HIV Testing Day. I sort of stumbled onto it because a very dear friend volunteers as…
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Marvin Gardens and Timothy Turkey
Sometime between 1972 and 1975 I went to Towpath Elementary School in Avon, Connecticut. That would have been third to fifth grade for me. I wish I could be more specific but that was so long ago. I do have two memories, though, that are as clear as day. The first is of Marvin Gordon.…
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The Black Sheep in the Family
Every family has one. A relative who refuses to play by the rules. Someone who causes unbelievable heartache, unspeakable scandal, and enormous amounts of frustration. Someone who generates really, really interesting family stories. In my family that was Uncle Dave, my mother’s little brother. When my mom was young, she was bedridden with whooping cough,…
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Albino Skunks and Other Distractions
The other night I was driving home from work at midnight on a very remote stretch of road. I came around the curve and saw a car stopped in the oncoming lane. My first thought was, “Oh great, now what? How altruistic am I willing to be, a woman alone at midnight in the middle…