Room 406 was chaos today. The pencil sharpener broke.  The stapler stapled a finger.  That boy got on this girl’s nerves and that girl had an earache. P.E. was canceled.  It rained at recess.  The cafeteria ran out of chicken nuggets and “no one’s even LISS-A-NING to me!” I honestly thought that the day would […]

Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment »

Aren’t we cute there on the end?  I’m sure my mom told me to sweep that pony right over my shoulder. I was all about it. Her mom probably told her to smile and act like a lady. We were better behaved back then. We got older in years and younger at heart. She moved […]

Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment »

When I went to pick my kids up from art today, there was purple paint everywhere.  They were covered in what looked like Barney beside a hand grenade– and the art teacher was, too.  Purple on her face, blood red in her cheeks, and thick black smoke coming out of her ears. And I did […]

Posted in Uncategorized 7 Comments »

I remember when I worked in Oxford (back in da day).  I was a blubbering-first-year-teacher-mess the biggest part of the time.  The sweet lady at Handy Andy even started giving me free banana pudding by sometime in late September– I mean, things are getting ugly when you’re going to a hole-in-the-wall barbecue joint to pig […]

Posted in Uncategorized 9 Comments »

She is absent again today. No eager hand raised at table one.  No sweet, patient spirit to work with Quinn at table two.  No look-at-these-new-earrings-I-got greeting at the door this morning. Because she isn’t here. She’s at home with her baby sister.  Her brother is there, too.   “He just turned four!” she told me […]

Posted in Uncategorized 9 Comments »

I just finished reading House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.  It’s been on my to-read list forever and I finally scratched out some time to make it happen.  It didn’t take much; the book is a collection of short stories, some of which aren’t even a full page long. The stories were easy to […]

Posted in Uncategorized 5 Comments »

Once I ran away and found one million songs. Of hurts and joys and memories of loves who’ve come and gone. Mountains in the mist and rivers running free. Crashing waves and ebbing tides and trails that climb on endlessly. Open pastures, fields of green, shifting sands, and tinkling streams. All the sights and sounds […]

Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment »

To breathe deeply and freely. To reconnect with friends. To seek out solitude. To run and read and write. To pick up pennies in parking lots. To use only Papermate Classic Mirado pencils– the ones with the red stripe on the eraser. To never resolve to give up Diet Coke again. To sleep in on […]

Posted in Uncategorized 9 Comments »

I used to be really good with transitions.  I just rolled right through them without checking up. From English to Spanish and back again.  From sidewalk runs to trails.  From oceans to rivers to creeks out by the barn.  From country to country, continent to continent.  From one-bedroom apartments to log cabins to tents in […]

Posted in Uncategorized 6 Comments »

I think I left the womb a dreamer and I haven’t let up since. When I was too little to remember my age, I dreamed that I could live off of chocolate milk alone.  When I was in kindergarten, I dreamed that Robin and I would be dancers on the Vaudeville stage.  At the ripe […]

Posted in Uncategorized 5 Comments »