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LJ Idol Week 4 - The Ax Forgets, The Tree Remembers
The Axe Forgets, The Tree Remembers
I did not have the greatest relationship with my mother.
I was never enough. Smart enough, pretty enough, thin enough, organized enough, neat enough, not using my talents enough. No matter what it was, I was never enough. She wanted the all-American WASP good girl, loves Jesus and her boyfriend, listens to only ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol Week 3- morgenmuffel
Tolkien was right. “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” Maybe the dragon would be more amenable if the knight in shining armor made it a cauldron or two of coffee before waking it up. The advice seems to transfer to some humans, too.
I tiptoe thru the door, on my way to the kitchen. Mustn’t wake ( Read more... ) -
What Really Matters - LJ Idol Week 2
I turned forty last month.
The last year has been a sea change for me. I quit my demanding job to cut down stress, only to accept a raise to stay another year. I ended or scaled back several 25+ year friendships, realizing that I was a much better friend to them than they were to me. I adopted a cat. I took over the title of my childhood home, and ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol
Time for a new season. I am in. Excited to focus on my writing for awhile.
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LJ Idol Season 11, Week 11 part 2, If the creek don't rise
If the Creek Don't Rise
When I was in eighth grade, my mom’s cousin had a surprise party for her mother’s 80th birthday. We told her we weren’t sure we’d be able to get all the way from St. Louis to northern Minnesota, especially since there was so much flooding and the highway we would normally take north was closed due to being flooded out.
“ ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol season 11, week 11: Wild Goose Chase
Where was he?
I had decided to splurge and go to Union Avenue Opera. They were performing the Scottish Opera Version of Candide, which was my first show I performed in when I went to college. I sang the Baroness Von Thunder-Ten Tronchk and then in the chorus (as the Baroness dies in one of the first scenes of the show) and hadn’t seen the show ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol Season 11, Week 10
Open Topic - Loss, Grief and Learning to Move On
The treatments weren’t working. That much was obvious. Every day I watched my mother grow weaker, unable to keep any food or water down at all. They tried TPN feeding, but it started to affect her heart. One step forward, three steps back.
My mother opened her eyes and looked at me from her hospital ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol Season 11, Week 9: Blood Harmony
They say blood is thicker than water. Well, my mother and I were like oil and water. No matter how hard I tried, I could never seem to please her.
Then, we made a discovery.
Mom’s cousin was a travel agent, and she invited Mom along on a trip as she had someone cancel after the deadline, and she couldn’t refund them unless someone else took the ( Read more... ) -
LJ Idol Season 11, week 8: My True North
I thought my high school had the absolute most stupid mascot in existence. Since we were a “North” branch off the main high school, and their mascot was the comets, they named us the stars. Yeah. The NORTH Stars.
Most of my high school experience didn’t really have a permanent effect on me. It is the people who became my true north, the ones who ( Read more... )
