OK, I get it. Todd Akin is a fool and probably hates women and sex.  But the question here is not the definition of rape, and which kind might or might not justify abortion.   The question is access to abortion.

It took me, oh, 60 seconds to tire of the… Read full post »

The wheelchair fits in my car, just so.

I’m good at this, after umpteen dinners at Perko’s, my Mom looking glum over her Chicken-Fried Chicken.  The faint smell of urine.

I’m a good girl.  I’m good.

Last week she was The Good Mom; “I don’t know what I&… Read full post »

You may have heard a discussion on NPR yesterday about MRSA.  (Methicillin-resistant staph aureus, to friends.  A nasty bug that causes nasty infections, and is hard to kill.)  As an ER nurse, I'm acutely aware of this issue, dealing regularly with the painful (and costly) incision of… Read full post »

So, I got a call on the way to one of my jobs yesterday, in ER, where I work as a travel nurse (a good deal, tax-wise, and flexible).  I've been working at the same ER for over a year, because I like it better than any of the other 6… Read full post »

"Your Mom's doing OK, right now", said Becky, "but she fell and hit her head pretty hard.  She's getting a CAT scan, now - kind of a fancy X-ray of her head.  We'll know more after that."

Sophie was silent on the other end of the line.

"Is there someone… Read full post »

Tracy Haight knew better.  She KNEW better.  When someone yells "CLEAR!", you back away from the bed.  She just wanted to tape the IV a little better - Mr. Hooper was in V Fib, sweating like a pig, and they were about to lose the IV, which they really REALLY needed. … Read full post »

I heard Destinee screaming before the ambulance bay door opened.  She rolled in, 18 years old but looking around 30.  Long, wavy red hair, formerly pretty.  She came in yelling "Where's my baby?  Do you have my baby?"

Her baby, it turned out, was with her grandmother.  The ne… Read full post »

I just listened to a  "how could this happen?" discussion on NPR of the recent gang rape and beating in Richmond, where bystanders either cheered, participated, or did nothing while a 15 year old girl was raped after the prom (except the ones who finally did something, it should be noted,… Read full post »

So, I just noticed there is such a thing as "Foodie Tuesday".  PLUS, I just noticed it's Tuesday.  What a happy coincidence THIS is.  Because there is, right now, roughly 50 pounds of produce covering my kitchen counters, sink, and floor, and I really don't want to deal with it. … Read full post »

Omigod.  I saw the aborted-then-rescheduled Larry King Live interview with Suzanne Somers, a woman I'd been only dimly aware of - first through her silly, "aren't I vacuous and cute?" performance on "Three's Company", a show I accidentally and briefly turned on once and quickly turned off becaus… Read full post »

I recently spent 45 minutes talking about death, and hospice, with my husband’s sister in Maryland. Her mother (my mother-in-law) — a delightfully quirky 91-year-old activist who still spends her days faxing her congressmen — just signed on with the local hospice.

I’m a hospic… Read full post »

Outside the gate was a familiar green Toyota truck. 

Just inside the gate stood Michael, with a tormented expression and a bouquet of white roses.

The word on the street was that Michael had been dating in the months since he'd left.  Dating a lot.  Various friends had warned… Read full post »

Spring arrived, like it always does.  And, like it always does, it brought light and hope.  Annie was in her yard admiring the snap pea seedlings along the front fence when George, her old neighbor from across the street shuffled over.

 "I just put a pie in the oven.  Think you… Read full post »

Over the next few weeks, the pain got less constant.  Some mornings still felt like waking up to a nightmare; on others, though, she could remember what it was like to wake up happy.  Happy, and free.  The late winter sun and  Oscar the cat warmed her, coffee and the newspaper… Read full post »

Briefly reveling in her new freedom to do such a wild thing, Annie made popcorn for dinner that night.  Just popcorn - no basic goddamned food groups, no plates on the table, no silverware.  Popcorn.  And lots of butter, which Michael eschewed.

Then she curled up on the couch in… Read full post »

1-29-03

She wasn't expecting it.  They'd had a fight - a worse-than-usual fight - where she imparted her wisdom, in her most annoying fashion, about how he should fix his relationship with his daughter.  Lots of wise counsel that, unfortunately, kept starting with "You need to. . .", … Read full post »

It is cold, tonight;

outside, the wind snarls, rattling the doors,

looking for a way in, but

here,

I feel your warmth. 

In the center of the bed we share, we sometimes meet,

entwining limbs, trading secrets, trading heat, then

recoiling,

wary of… Read full post »

FACT:  Americans spent over $15 billion on bottled water last year.  That's 50 billion plastic bottles being produced from fossil fuels, shipped full across the country or world, and mostly discarded in landfill.

FACT:  In Fiji, from whence come 1 million bottles daily of the grooviest… Read full post »

OK, I have a few questions.  Like, who ARE the OS editors?  Does anybody KNOW who they are, or, like, where one might mail them cookies?  Do we get to know how they work, or are they more like, say, God, or Dick Cheney?

 Not that I CARE about getting an… Read full post »

He's not dead yet.  To the uninitiated, though, he looks like he's standing on the threshold.  Maybe a little over it.

My neighbor just came over with a couple nice Animal Control guys (I love this town. . .)  who had loaded him in their truck, thinking they needed to put… Read full post »

As is often the case, I was late getting there.  My sister was gone; there was a bloody kitchen knife on the counter. 

I had no idea what to do.  I was 17.

I sat on the curb in front of the house, crying; a neighbor came out and asked… Read full post »

 Listen to this.  It'll give you the strength to go on.  Yay, YAY, USA!

(snif. . . I'm tearing up, here. . .)

  Read full post »

So, I came home from the Strawberry Music Festival to find a large herd of caterpillars on my pubescent walnut tree.  I'd never have noticed, except that they'd chewed the bejesus out of about the top third of the leaves.  On closer inspection, I saw a couple cute little caterpillar snouts… Read full post »