Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Category: Marriage, Family, Dogs, and Cat
Say It Ain’t So – Rats in the Basement: Part 1
This is a story I’ve thought of telling many times but it’s always been so hard to get my arms around it. You know. Stories about rodents are just so very hard to craft well. My story started when I saw this creature in… Continue Reading “Say It Ain’t So – Rats in the Basement: Part 1”
The Power of I Am Sorry: Mending Family Estrangement
I’m resurrecting this piece that I wrote several years ago about my long term estrangement from my parents. It’s the story about how 10 years of silence ended. It also was the first serious personal essay I wrote. It just goes to show that the… Continue Reading “The Power of I Am Sorry: Mending Family Estrangement”
What Did I Know? Words from a Non-Yiddisha Pisk
What did I know? I knew nothing. I was 35 when I married a nice Jewish man from Philadelphia. His mother was small, blond, smart, and very scary. She had told him growing up that she would sooner hang herself in the closet than… Continue Reading “What Did I Know? Words from a Non-Yiddisha Pisk”
Rainbow Bend
After I had a baby – as in gave birth to a baby – a friend remarked that I had the worst adjustment to motherhood of anyone she’d ever met. She was right. But I was undeterred, going on to adopt three more children. With… Continue Reading “Rainbow Bend”
Christmas Story #3: Redrum
Not being clairvoyant, I don’t really know if other people go around with the same phrase drumming through their heads all day long. This isn’t every day. It’s just some days. Some particularly bad days. Christmastime brings back memories of one of the more… Continue Reading “Christmas Story #3: Redrum”
So Hot It Makes You Cry
This is a re-post of a blog written last year. Seems appropriate considering Milwaukee’s recent weather! Now today was a pretty darn hot day. I spent a fair share of it submerged in water at a local water park. Yes, I know it’s Monday… Continue Reading “So Hot It Makes You Cry”
Red’s Wrap One Year Anniversary Post
On Saturday, I took my granddaughter, Alita, to watch her dad and grandfather play baseball for the Red Dots, a team in the old Un-American League started at Kern Park by a bunch of Riverwest lefties in the 70’s. It’s kind of a weird thing… Continue Reading “Red’s Wrap One Year Anniversary Post”
Greedy or Good?
Tonight I watched a news segment about a couple who had adopted a slew of kids after raising a bunch of birth children. The mom rattled off the stats: 2 two-year olds, 2 three-year olds, a six year-old, a seven-year old. I lost track. There might… Continue Reading “Greedy or Good?”
In Good Time
This is a story about going back. Adopted kids going back to their country of origin is a rite of passage – or maybe a right of passage. Our three adopted kids are all from Nicaragua. The oldest, Nelson, lived in an orphanage in San Marcos;… Continue Reading “In Good Time”
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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