Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Category: Marriage, Family, Dogs, and Cat
Bringing the Box
“I don’t want to go all the way to Chicago with your dad in a box on my lap.” “Where am I supposed to put him? If I put him in the trunk, the box could tip over. Just hold him, it’s not that… Continue Reading “Bringing the Box”
Thank you Mamalode!
Lately I’ve been encouraging people to do NaBloPoMo, participate in writing contests, and just plain look for ways to bust out of the tiny. One way to do that is to respond to Mamalode‘s monthly themes. Last month, Mamalode’s theme was “It’s Complicated.” Since… Continue Reading “Thank you Mamalode!”
The Person Formerly Known as Short Pants
My uncle’s name was J. No, it wasn’t Jay. It was J. This was a guy who was born in 1911 so it wasn’t like his parents were into some symbol for the person formerly known as Prince thing. Why would anyone name their… Continue Reading “The Person Formerly Known as Short Pants”
It’s News to Me
My daughter posted on Facebook yesterday that she’d seen an ancestry.com commercial, signed up and was hooked. Over the course of twenty-four hours, she’s sent me several texts and emails telling me things I never knew and wouldn’t have imagined about our ancestors including… Continue Reading “It’s News to Me”
Shopping Trip
So Walmart is selling caskets. Why would they not? When I was growing up, the monthly magazine Chain Store Age sat on our coffee table. Chain Store Age had articles about all the latest merchandising cons. My dad taught me to love a good… Continue Reading “Shopping Trip”
Pops
My dad handled everything smoking a cigarette, later a cigar clenched in his teeth. He fixed things with a blowtorch, kept screws in peanut butter jars. When he wasn’t fixing things, he took my mother to the hospital and played the piano.
Scorecard
Her children are doing great, one is an accountant, another in law school, the last in Central America on a break from college,resumes folded in her purse to show me if I asked. I turned away from the contest, knowing I would have to… Continue Reading “Scorecard”
Saturday Afternoon
Sometimes you have to wonder if completely losing control of one’s temper to the point of beating on the steering wheel of one’s car might possibly be therapeutic like having a colonic or one of those facials that extract every morsel of unpleasantness from… Continue Reading “Saturday Afternoon”
A Person in the World
I’m in a stage of my life where I am wanting mothering to have been one of the things I’ve done but not the only thing or even, maybe, the most important thing. Part of my wanting to get out from under the mothering… Continue Reading “A Person in the World”
Fun with Special Ed
Out behind your everyday, run of the mill public school, there is a very dense forest. In the forest, there are paths that crisscross and at the intersections the signs point up and down and backward. Many people get lost in the forest. They… Continue Reading “Fun with Special Ed”
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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