Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Category: Aging in Abundance
Typing My Way to Victory
Central Michigan University, Michigan State University (2x), University of Michigan-Flint, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2x). My college education started in 1966 and ended in 1986. I just this minute realized that my trudge through higher education consumed twenty years. But the real question is what… Continue Reading “Typing My Way to Victory”
Beautiful, Beautiful Dopey
When I was a sophomore in college, my roommate, Linda, owned two horses. One was a spectacular stallion whose name I can’t recall and the other was a smaller buckskin gelding named Dopey. Linda was a very tough blond from a tiny town in… Continue Reading “Beautiful, Beautiful Dopey”
Old Pony
When it’s windy, I can’t hear. It doesn’t bother me. It’s like going home again. Being in my own head, seeing what I see, being with other people but like strangers on a train. No one expects you to talk to strangers on a… Continue Reading “Old Pony”
Backflip on Day 1
[Prompt: Tell us about your first day at something.] In the first minutes of the first day at my job as a secretary to the supervisor of Meridian Township in 1967, I leaned back in my swivel chair and fell over so that I… Continue Reading “Backflip on Day 1”
My Brother John’s Peanut Butter Sandwiches
I made 110 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with my friend, Christina, today. Another volunteer slipped each sandwich in a plastic bag and stacked it in the box with all the others. I learned that I am a very fast maker of peanut butter… Continue Reading “My Brother John’s Peanut Butter Sandwiches”
Old Girl Gets Nostalgic
I have a black leather jacket hanging in the closet. It was a present from my husband about forty years ago. It was a jacket for a tough chick, which I was once, but now I’m wondering if it could be an old lady’s… Continue Reading “Old Girl Gets Nostalgic”
Iron Me a Fine Shirt
[What could you do less of?] I’m already doing less of the things I could do less of. Hanging back. Waiting. Wasting time. Second guessing. Ironing. I could only do less ironing if I took my ironing board and my steam iron and threw… Continue Reading “Iron Me a Fine Shirt”
A Row of Twenty Trumpets
[Prompt: Share five things you’re good at.) What five things am I good at? Why stop at five things? I can think of twenty things I’m good at. I’m good at… Writing things fast. Making decisions with lifelong consequences in minutes. Convincing people to… Continue Reading “A Row of Twenty Trumpets”
Little Car, Little Plot
Some very nice people sent me an Advent box. In the first window, there was this tiny chocolate Volkswagen. I wanted to keep it but I ate it. There was a caramel filling. A delicious little automobile. I’m writing a short story that is… Continue Reading “Little Car, Little Plot”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
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