_{"West Cabanne Place is in the 5900 and 6000 block of Cabanne Ave, at the end of a grim, gray street where the}… Read full post »

1. The question mark does not always go inside the quotation marks. So much for a sure thing.

2. There are actually only three people here, with a lot of different alters. This discovery is the reason for the rumors of its demise. However, they can't close until they figure out… Read full post »

I'll be talking to my daughter, and we'll be having a nice conversation, and then she'll ask me what I did yesterday.

Yesterday? I have no clue what I did yesterday.

But when I was six we went to Santa Claus, Indiana and rode the....Damn! What's the word I'm looking… Read full post »

It's been a little lonely in the bookstore these days. Not because of the lack of customers, but because my landlord instituted a "no dog" rule and my store dog is now relegated to doing his reading at home.

I used to joke that more customers knew his name than … Read full post »

All the acronyms, or Urban Slang, or Tweetspeak, or whatever you want to call them are driving me crazy. I can't keep them straight and, whenever I come across one, I find myself in a place far away from wherever the person was trying to take me. 

Because, I'm sorry, but… Read full post »

Fifty Shades of Grey is currently hot. The newest James Patterson book is always hot. For reasons I don't fully understand, Amish romances continue to be hot. And for six long weeks this summer, every book in my store was hot. Not because of a sudden rush of customers, but… Read full post »

I watched a little of the Illinois Marathon that passed by my apartment a few weeks ago. For some reason, I had always thought that everyone ran in a marathon, but appparently I was wrong. For the short time I watched, rather late in the race, most runners were… Read full post »

I'll make a quick comment on Facebook, or OS, or to a group and then, just as quickly, realize that I want to take it back. That it doesn't read like it was intended. That it sounds dismissive instead of funny. That it sounds smug instead of caring. I want to… Read full post »

I drive across the plains of Illinois from the medium size college town where I now live to the smaller one where I grew up. About seventy miles--a few of them on interstate highway, but most on two lane state roads through other small towns that announce their presence with tall… Read full post »

In May of 1970, there was a Hard Hats riot in New York City where construction workers marched in support of the Vietnam war and in oppostion to anti-war protestors marching against the shootings… Read full post »

She's well into her 80's and arrives at my used bookstore every two or three weeks with her caretaker who helps her out of the car, opens the door for her, and settles her in a chair, where she takes her time picking out a dozen or so books to get… Read full post »

I'm not sure when I noticed it, but our handwriting is almost identical. A sloppy mixture of cursive and block letters that don't follow any of the rules that were drilled into us in third and fourth grade.… Read full post »

There was a time when I was busy. With two young daughters, a full time job and no husband, there was seldom a time when something wasn't getting done. Trash out on Tuesday, softball games on Saturday, Volleyball on Tuesday, homework to monitor, yards to mow, overflowing laundry baskets, shopping car… Read full post »

Every day during our annual summer vacation, Grandpa and I would fill a bucket with feed and throw it by the handful to the chickens in the wire enclosed pen in the back yard . I'm not sure why he had chickens. He didn't live on a farm and I… Read full post »

          Quick! Go get my book! Read me the last page! Read full post »

He comes in most days after school. And in the summer, one or two days a week. I think his mom sets a limit. He's a quiet boy and would follow her rules.

Sometimes he comes alone, but often he brings friends and shows them where the comics are. And the… Read full post »

I had just graduated from law school and was in Chicago studying for the Bar Exam that I was scheduled to take at the end of summer. Somewhere in the near South Side I made a rolling stop or ran a red light or forgot to use the turn signal… Read full post »

I'm a lot like my mom--small boned, more likely to walk out of groups than into them, and a little too quick to find something about my life that I'm dissatisfied with. 

My dad, on the other hand, was portly, a people person, and completely content with all… Read full post »

 I walked out into a perfect day yesterday. No clouds in sight, a light breeze ruffling the leaves of slender flowers, mid-70's temperature, and two white airplane streams hanging almost directly abo… Read full post »

"Yes, ma'am."

"No, ma'am."

They were his random responses to all questions.

He was not a Southern gentleman, and they were odd couplets of words to be the only ones left that he could retrieve. We couldn't remember him ever saying either one.

Speech aphasia, they told us after… Read full post »

                                                                      Relax.

&n… Read full post »

As soon as she walks in the door, she tells me that I have even more books than last time.

I tell her it's because she's not reading fast enough.

She laughs, even though we have this exchange every time.

There's little mystery about her. She's a retired high… Read full post »