Let’s face it, we’ve all noticed the marked parallels between Santa Claus and the other omnipotent, omnipresent bearded man up north. He sees you when you’re sleeping? He knows when you’re awake? Surrounded by a group of devout followers… and everything captured carefully in an enormous book. If you don’t…
I’ll never forget the 2012 lead-up to the presidential election. We were on my sabbatical up in Ashland, Oregon, half listening to the presidential debate on TV. We didn’t think the boys were paying attention until Jake asked with sincere interest, “Are they talking about weapons again?” What I thought…
I spent my childhood in the mountains. Some years, we would get one group of trick-or-treaters that my dad most certainly scheduled. I can neither confirm nor deny that my mom passed out candy collected the previous Halloween. And to Granddad’s credit, he would load us up into the green VW…
I’m not sure how many waves of fashion popularity fluorescence factually claims, but at the risk of aging myself, I’m pretty sure I’ve witnessed three of the four. In elementary school, my little brother was quite the proud porter of neon, head to toe. At the time, I certainly appreciated the form of fluorescence, but…
When I was five my mom tricked me into playing soccer. She told me my best friend Zoe was playing. Apparently Zoe’s mom told her I was playing… and a few weeks later we were the only two girls on a green team called Rational Moving. Those first games were rough—…
Earlier this week, Nate and I were on our way up the hill while Jake finished-up soccer practice. As we’re rounding the bend by the apple orchard, Nate asks from the backseat, “How come Grandma’s almost death?” “What?!” I ask taken aback. “Grandma’s not almost death! Why would you say…
The first week we moved up to our house there was a heat wave… and boy was it hot. We were baking. Suffocating. Sweating amidst our moving boxes and our PODS. I admit, we were worried. Had we just moved somewhere with an unbearable climate? Would it be like this…
When my brother was little he was obsessed with wanting to learn karate. For the record, I was not in favor of him attaining any additional ways of physically attacking me… his cowboy boots were weapon enough. And after some interminable level of whining and begging, we dropped him off at his…
I married a cowboy hat-wearing pick-up truck driver from the Central Valley. And James married an environmentally conscious tree-hugger from Santa Cruz. So of course this has led to many years of friendly ribbing, especially when it comes to Papa and me. Fortunately, Papa can dish it out, but he…
During the last weekend of August we ventured out to the campground at Lopez Lake for a two-day, fun-filled outdoor cousin adventure. “Lake” Lopez is a bit of a misnomer. The drought has reduced it down to a brush-filled canyon. Jake and Nate know quite a bit about droughts and…