So this weekend I am living in a biosphere. Really. A huge dome with trees and birds, plants and alligators. A river and waterfall, even a sailboat. An enormous resort in Florida where I am attending a convention. We checked into the hotel today and waltzed up to our 9th floor room where a balcony …

We joined the flood club this weekend. I’ve heard rumors about this group of people before. The ones with carpet rolled up at the curb, couches that became sponges, and boxes of keepsakes no longer to be kept. The folks for whom words like mildew and mold send shivers and nasty smells all about the …

I love the clerks in my local grocery store. The same women scan and weigh and slide my yogurt and tortilla chips every week. At first they appear pretty gruff and I confess to wondering if they love or hate me and my type, us food-eating, grocery store shopping types. I am fairly certain we …

I am already a basket case over the fact that my children will someday have to survive middle school. I hated middle school. It was teeming with hormones and mean girls, chaos over who to befriend and where to sit at lunch. Drama oozed out of every locker. Before middle school I was a self …

I feel like I am drowning in stuff. Stuff to mail. Stuff to do. Stuff to email. Stuff to think about. Stuff all over my house. As I type, my kitchen counter is piled high with canvas bags, a granola bar, Kiwis, coffee, mail, my purse, a bag of moldy tortilla shells, the garage door …

In the daily grind of life there are few obstacles as irritating as traffic. The opening scene of “Office Space” deftly captures the sentiment. You know it, the neurotic jockeying and ill-fated attempts we make to slip ourselves into the lane that appears to be moving. A flip of the turn signal, quick glances in …

I visited one of the most fabulous friends today for an afternoon of playing with our children, six between the two of us. It was a visit complete with dangling costume jewelry and Darth Vader capes. An excellent afternoon of adventure if you ask me. My friend lives about 30 minutes from our house so …

It is officially winter in Chicago. Even though the calendar won’t reflect this reality until two more weeks, there is snow and wind, ice and sleet, and single digit temperatures. The frozen tundra that is my home 4 months each year has arrived. Last week I hauled my little bundle of people to the grocery …

Halloween is over. We are now officially, undoubtedly, out-of-controlably careening toward Christmas. Less than 8 weeks. I was standing in the kitchen tonight pilfering through the bowl of chewy, crinkly wrapped treats that my children acquired last night. Poor things. They do all the work of running up and down the sidewalks, climbing stairs, ringing …

This past week I was walking home from the school drop-off with a newish friend. Swapping stories about the basics of our lives. Marital status, where we grew up, favorite pastimes. When it came time to exchange the details on all the places we lived before landing in our current community, a contrite little sigh …