My great uncle suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and passed away on Tuesday night. I will be vulnerable here and admit my own naivete; I had never really considered how I would handle it when that generation of my family started to succumb to old age. When I got the phone call at work on Monday morning that my aunt had found him in their hotel room ( Read more... )

This is my declaration of intent to participate in Season 8 of The Real LJ Idol.

There. All professional like.

More information can be found over at therealljidol

This is an entry for Therealljidol. The topic this week was "First World Problem"“I need a Decaf, Jumbo, Half soy, Half non-fat, latte. With four shots, one and a half pumps of mocha, 2 splender, and 3 ice cubes on the side. You can put them on an overturned lid, I don't need a cup.” The man that had approached my counter with his ludicrous order ( Read more... )

This is an entry for therealljidol. The prompt this week was "Brouhaha"My son was born when I was seventeen ( Read more... )

This is an entry for therealljidol. The topic this week was "Not of your world"I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, literally. The Metro-North train line split the town into two sections, with 98% of people living on one side, and the rest of us crammed into an older neighborhood between the rail line and the next town over ( Read more... )

This is an entry for therealljidol. The topic this week is "Afterthought"The ocean churned relentlessly, one wave pushing the next to submission, causing it to tumble into the deep steel gray of the sea. The skies were heavy and there was no sign of the sun. The wind was loud enough to drown out even the calypso music pouring from the speaker on the wall. The ( Read more... )

This entry is for therealljidol. The topic is "The elephant in the room" The only one at the wake who knew we had gotten married was my younger brother, who had been present at our nuptials two weeks earlier and had agreed to keep quiet until we broke the news to our family. My husband and I decided that a wake wasn't the venue to share our joy, so we obscured ( Read more... )

This entry is for therealljidol. The topic this week was "Deconstruction"

How to Properly Consume a Cupcake: The Bottom Up MethodStep One: Select the highest quality cupcake you can find. Hostess counts if you're reading this from a 7-11 or a dingy gas station on the side of the interstate ( Read more... )

This entry is a submission for therealljidol. The subject this week was "winding up"It's Halloween night and it's cold. Almost cold enough to be “bitter” and it's still early yet. I wonder if I'm getting old, noticing that the small batman ricocheting around the yard doesn't seem to notice the bite in the air. My husband comes outside, having gathered our ( Read more... )

Hello Hello ( Read more... )