I was driving back to my little motel after my first two talks of the week.  Earlier this year, I attended a national conference for librarians. My publisher wanted me to be there to sign …

I woke this morning from a vivid dream.  The tricky thing about vivid dreams is that what seems vivid about them is usually difficult to describe. The vivid part is the feeling: the way I …

It’s caterpillar season.  I remembered this yesterday as I sat out on the deck with my parents and two of their oldest friends at their cabin “up north.” We noticed as a tiny, furry …

I’m sure someone must have mentioned that I’d be on a boat.  But I somehow missed that information entirely until I was given directions to a boat landing. A book club was reading my …

My closet is full of sequins.  No one knows how many sequins I own. Not even my husband, Peter, even though we share a closet. He gets one side and I get the other, which seems to me a …

I am made entirely of habits.  This is not an original observation. Annie Dillard wrote: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” I either love that quote or hate …

About a million years ago (or at least it feels that way), I used to produce theater. The season ended just before Christmas with “A Christmas Carol,” and a peculiar thing would happen just as …

Since my niece, Isabelle, was little, she was always a planner. She was the only kindergartner I knew who laid out her outfit for the following day on her bed the night before.  “Which …

I spent last week “up north” with my parents. While my husband, Peter, and my cat, Felix, stayed at home and played cat games, I drove up to my parents’ cabin four hours north.  The …

I haven’t been giving out dog treats for a while.  Sometimes, I am the treat lady on my walks, and sometimes I do not carry dog treats. I love dispensing treats, but I hate getting turned …

I go to the theater every chance I get.  In an earlier life, I worked in the theater, and unlike some actors and technicians I know who spent years working in the theater and now never want …

As far as I know, most of my people were farmers. On both my parents’ sides, my Scandinavian ancestors came across the ocean looking for better topsoil. I know immigrants came for many reasons—to …

Every day, I walk by dozens of beautiful houses.  I am an admirer of grand old houses. I live downtown, just blocks away from some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, where lumber …

My husband Peter’s birthday is this week.  Peter does not celebrate his birthday. Peter doesn’t think the day of his birth is anything to celebrate. He’s happy to celebrate my …

When I was 8 years old, I played a game while on vacation.  I was visiting the ocean for the first time. The sand was dry, and as the waves hit the beach, I would see which wave came up …

“What’s up with the bells?” I asked someone who looked as if he might know something.  I live near a cathedral. I can’t hear the cathedral bells from our apartment, but I walk past …

I spent last week with my parents, which is always fun.  My father has been having trouble with his legs, and tasks that involve getting up from the ground are hard for him, particularly if …

I am “up north,” as people say, spending time with my parents at their cabin. My parents are spending more time in town, especially in the winter. But now it is spring, and to hear them tell it, being a nonagenarian is no reason to stay away from the place they love best.

I woke yesterday morning, and my cat, Felix, was nowhere to be found. “Felix! Where are you?” In the morning, I put milk in my coffee and a little milk in a tiny bowl for Felix, and I …

I was never a part of any team. I was terrible at sports. I was so bad at tennis in high school that my gym teacher sent me to the school nurse to have my vision checked. I didn’t bother to …