When we were newlyweds we bought a little mountain house with a steep roof and dark brown siding. It was located in the foothills above Boulder and we drove up as soon as we got the keys on a February evening. The sun crouched low on the horizon, spilling long tree shadows across the dirt […]
Jeri Bacon
I tried to recall what had attracted me to him in the first place. Competence is my aphrodisiac. It started with my first love, Jeff, the lead singer who won our high school Battle of the Bands. Then it was Tony, the genius pre-med student in college. Later it was Bart, the president of the […]
The Hospital
Two years after our divorce the phone rang. It was Carol, the wife that came before me. “Listen, I’m having lunch with Randy and he’s freaking out,” she said breathlessly. “What kind of freaking out?” I asked. “He says he wants to die. He’s sobbing on the table. Should I take him to the hospital?” […]
Ashes
Seventeen days passed and Randy’s body was still stored in a freezer at the coroner just waiting for someone to sign a release. I begged his parents to have him cremated but they didn’t step up. I finally called a funeral home and paid them $2,117.61. I cringed thinking of his body in a fire. […]
Chloe
Her father had been dead for a week and I wasn’t sure I had seen Chloe cry. While her brother and I spilled our emotions all over the house, Chloe quietly rolled her eyes at us. At bedtime I had started giving them extra long snuggles. “How’s it going, honey?” I asked carefully. “Good,” she […]
News From Summer
December sunlight sliced through the french doors and fell in a swath on my kitchen island. It was the moment in the morning after the kids had gone to school and everything was quiet. I turned on the stove and a small flame erupted under the tea kettle. My cell phone rang and I glanced […]
Triplets
I had been so nervous all day I could barely eat or accomplish anything. At 9:00 p.m. my husband was scheduled to give me a shot in my lower back. He was not a doctor. He was an electrician. The Buddhist electrician, I liked to call him, because I loved how true and incongruous these […]
Dream Gran
I was riding a horse down a steep mountain trail in Arizona. My view was framed by two furry ears that twitched and danced now and then. The saddle creaked with a leathery sound as we swayed left and right. The horses picked their way down a steep incline. I leaned back dramatically to keep […]
Bobcat
All night long I kept waking up to the sound of a roaring engine and the beep beep that construction vehicles make when they are in reverse. It permeated my dreams. It echoed off the foothills. It yanked me headlong out of sleep and threw me into the wilted pillows time and again. It was […]
How has serendipity played a role in your life?
Serendipity has been the map I have used to navigate most of my life. I think that in order to live by this philosophy, it requires a high level of trust that things tend to work out. I have come to learn that most people are not able to do this so I now consider […]
How did you choose what college to attend?
I have loved art for as long as I can remember. The house I grew up in was pretty much an art studio, an extension of my mother’s love for crafts. She had an official studio in the basement, but our family’s art projects spilled over into the kitchen, living room, project room and beyond. […]
Who did you go to prom with?
In 1984 I had an English teacher named Mr. McWilliams. He was a strange counter-culture sort of fellow. If you saw him on the street in his disheveled suit and unkempt hair you might think he was homeless. He seemed like an old man to me then but he was probably only in his 40’s. […]
What was the neighborhood you grew up in like?
I feel lucky to have grown up in a wonderful neighborhood and also to have stayed there for my whole childhood. I’m told there was a house on Chipmunk Lane but I don’t remember that one. Nor do I recall the “Forange”, which was in the forest, in the orange, where I used to peer […]
