The Art of Nuance   I just got caught up on ABC’s This is Us which further proved to be jaw-dropping, heart-stopping brilliance. It faithfully depicts human/flawed/real/loving/painful relationships in one of the most honest ways I’ve ever seen on the screen. If you fully absorbed (this is key) the most recent episode, you experienced the … Read more

He Has Ulterior Motives   The pillow in the photo is documentation of ulterior motives. It reads: “It all began behind a closed door at church camp 1982.” This excerpt from “Crush,” in I Punched Myself in the Eye, will fill in the blanks:   “Pants brought us together in the first place back in … Read more

As for Me   Everything is so BIG these days–the word “unprecedented” is flying off the shelves. People just can’t get enough. I’m not rolling my eyes—I do think things are BIG. Things are terribly unprecedented. Terribly.   But here’s what I also think: Tiny equals big. Tiny acts equal big results. The outcome can … Read more

  Captain America   What does this image evoke in you?   Fighting trash? A faded superhero down for the count? Making America great again?   I rode by this Captain America shield/trash can situation yesterday morning—the last day of the pulverizing year, 2020, and thought, Perfect. Yeah, that fits. I also thought of the … Read more

Merry Amends Day. When I hear someone say that they have no regrets, it sounds to me like they’re saying they’re sorry for nothing—not for hurting anyone (they have, we all have), not for any mistake. What do you think? I recently listened to Brene Brown’s podcast with Dax Shepard and Tim Ferriss. Here’s a … Read more

A Message From Beyond the Grave   “Who do you think you are? Don’t get too big for your britches, young lady.” This is what she seemed to be saying.   “Wait, what?” I heard myself think. She even used the scolding phrase, young lady. Twice. She was talking to me like a mom who’d … Read more

Fleeting   On my desk, I have a Post-it that says, “Fleeting” to remind me that good or bad, it’s temporary.   It’s good to know. Because it’s so freaking easy to forget.   I Facetime with my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Brooks, just about every day. He’s been saying a line to me lately that just … Read more

  Hail to the Chief   Today I streamed last night’s episode of SNL. I’ve been faithfully watching the show since high school, around the time of its debut (I’m kind of old). Back in those days, before the internet, DVR, VCR and the automobile :), I watched “Saturday Night Live” live, and so I … Read more

Breathless   When my friend Jennifer responded by saying that she loved me, I quickly shot back with, “I love you more I win.” I was being cute, with a competitive…I’m gonna say it without taking a breath and without punctuation to convey my race-to-the-finish-line-declaration-that-I-loved-her-more-and-so-I-win.   After I wrote it, I looked at that breathless … Read more

Manners   Yesterday on the San Juan Creek Trail bike path coming back from Doheny, I came up behind an elderly woman in a dress ambling along the concrete river bed. From the back, she was a dead ringer for my late grandma Josephine. Same frame, same manner—and most striking was that beautiful silver bun … Read more