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a thought for minneapolis
I’m sure all of you know about the I-35W bridge collapsing into the Mississippi River on Wednesday night. It’s a bridge that I drove over from work to Stella’s daycare. It’s a bridge that countless people drove over every day to and from work. No one I know (that I know of) was injured or…
on talent
First, thank you for all the supportive comments on my last post. I really appreciate it, and I actually feel much better this week (if the sensation of having vomit at the top of my throat can be considered “better.”) But, the nausea and tiredness are good things, clear signals that I am, indeed, pregnant.…
heartbreak and hoping
Oh why did I do this to myself? Why? For class tomorrow, I’m having my students read Susan Ito’s “Samuel” and Suzanne Kamata’s “You’re So Lucky.” I chose these pieces to spark discussion about point of view, emotional distance, and writing about heartbreak. But I’m not going to talk about how talented I think both…
weary
I had a very long weekend. It was the USA Cup, which is (for those of you who don’t follow youth soccer) a week-long tournament in Minnesota that draws kids from all over the world. They descend on the National Sports Center by the thousands to play their little soccer hearts out and bake in…
pining
Yesterday Stella and I were running errands and I mentioned that Gahgee (what she calls my dad) was going to baby-sit because D. and I were going to a party. She got all teary and said that she didn’t want us to go and didn’t want Gahgee to come over. And then she said, “Are…
there is nothing like
becoming dizzy with blue sky and rustling leaves and swaying trucks as I stand among birch trees, staring straight up lying in bed at night, listening to the eerie call of loons, back and forth, across the lake a daytime moon holding watch over a field of newly-plowed hay Stella’s excitement prior to her first…
reading recap
I have been relaxing up north (which is how we refer to Northern Minnesota), so I’m only now posting about the first (and hopefully annual) Mother Words reading. First, if you are ever in Minneapolis and have a chance to go to a reading at the Open Book, where the Loft Literary Center is housed,…
mother words: a reading
Hey, for all of you local writers and moms and dads, please join me tomorrow night at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis for Mother Words: A Reading by Mothers Who Write. I will be reading from Ready for Air, and I will be joined by Nanci Olesen, public radio commentator and host of MOMbo,…
8 things
Okay, I was tagged by Kyra at this mom to reveal eight things about myself. Here it goes: 1) When I was in college and working at 3M one summer, I electrocuted myself. 2) When I was in college and working at 3M one summer, I electrocuted myself AGAIN. Seriously, same summer, same day. With…
where voice resides: the allergy diaries
There are a few essays so well-written that I could use them to teach each element of craft. Jill Christman’s “The Allergy Diaries” is one of these essays. “The Allergy Diaries” describes Christman’s infant daughter’s anaphylactic reaction to cow’s milk and the aftermath of this discovery. That is the situation in the essay. The real…