Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Category: Marriage, Family, Dogs, and Cat
There was a Sale on Clouds
A friend once told me that the average person thinks about replacing their pillow for seven years before they actually do it. It seemed like a factual thing, something he’d read in a scholarly journal. He wasn’t just wisecracking. Still, seven years equivocating about… Continue Reading “There was a Sale on Clouds”
One Last Word
By the end of today, I wanted to duct tape shut the mouths of the people I was with so they could not utter another single syllable. It was okay if their bodies were littered about my house and also okay if they talked… Continue Reading “One Last Word”
That It was the Same Only Better
I thought God had circled the Earth twenty times until He saw me wringing my hands after another failed home pregnancy test and decided to bring me babies from somewhere else. That’s how far gone I was. I absolutely believed that I was purposely… Continue Reading “That It was the Same Only Better”
My Father Mended Me
I’ll leave it to other people to talk about how swell their dads were, how their dads taught them to fish and play ball and inspired them to be honest and hardworking. I have a different story to tell. It’s a story of how… Continue Reading “My Father Mended Me”
Bite Me
Yes, the doll has two little red dots on her neck. This is Marceline, although I just this minute learned her name. She is a vampire doll and for a few weeks she lived in my house, the property of my seven-year old granddaughter,… Continue Reading “Bite Me”
Bury Me Floating
On a night when what’s going on in the world seems like an episode of 24, I am sitting at the small round table in our second floor room at the 1950’s era motel in the Florida Keys where we’ve stayed more than twenty… Continue Reading “Bury Me Floating”
The 4:00 A.M. Breakfast Club
The light was on in the kitchen and then the small light in the dining room. I saw my daughter setting out a placemat, a bowl and a spoon, a box of corn flakes. Of course, a box of corn flakes. She always ate… Continue Reading “The 4:00 A.M. Breakfast Club”
An Homage to My Old Kitchen
Thirty years ago, we walked into the kitchen of the house we wanted to buy and stood in the breakfast nook watching the recently divorced owner eat her pancake dinner. She told us that she had decided to sell the house to us instead… Continue Reading “An Homage to My Old Kitchen”
Things My Mother Taught Me — Partly on Purpose
My mother taught me many things she didn’t know she was teaching me and probably had no intention of teaching me. She also tried to teach me things I had no interest or ability to learn. This is suggestive of a lot of crossed… Continue Reading “Things My Mother Taught Me — Partly on Purpose”
The Trip Home through Hudson
The Western Auto Store is now a Chinese restaurant and not a very good one from the looks on people’s faces. Bad meals had been eaten there. We stopped the car for just a minute but when I got out, I decided against a… Continue Reading “The Trip Home through Hudson”
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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