It was the Spring of 1980. I was 15 years old and decided to make up a self-improvement project out of dieting. I “felt fat” at 128 lbs and wanted to weigh 105 , so I got a yellow folder (pictured above^^), some magazines and graph paper, and began what I called “The Long and Winding Road (to thinness.)” I was quite industrious: cutting out images and words, doing collage and making up daily worksheets for myself. I had a goal and I wanted to achieve it. Continue reading
Category: Essay (Page 8 of 12)
The year was 1991. Bob and I spent the Fall at home with our preemie twin babies, exhausted, broke and exhilarated as we learned the job of being new parents.
I’ve always loved so much A Christmas Carol, from Dickens’ stylized language to the redemption story, quirky ghosts, and all the Christmasy details. Our famous Guthrie Theater puts on a wonderful production of it every holiday season, and there was no way our tight budget would allow anything like that. But I yearned to see it, needed something bright like that to help my tired spirit appreciate the holidays.
I found out that a local independent bookstore (Baxter Books, which has since closed) was having a writing contest to give away tickets to the Guthrie production. They wanted Christmas-oriented submissions — I don’t remember much more than that. I wanted to win tickets so bad that I wrote my heart out, coming up with my own short version of A Christmas Carol. I don’t remember how many winners there were, but Reader, I was one of them. It was so exciting to win something from my writing, and to get to see the performance I wanted so much to see.
I dug into my old files and found it. Here it is, a blast from the past, from 27 year old me. I hope you enjoy it, and may there be wonder and contentment for you this Winter. Continue reading
My new plan has been to blog 3 times a week. It’s a challenging idea (ack! what the heck will I write about?) that would move me in a direction I want to go with my writing. But last week, Dear Reader, I did not.
I had planned to. It was my intention to. Then I got anxious as the days of the week went by. I couldn’t settle on anything to write. A poem? An observation? Something funny? I dunno. I found myself repeatedly running away from the blank page and screen. Some might call it writer’s block, but truthfully, I knew what it really was: perfectionism kicking my a** (again).
On Saturday I had a big thrill for my Ever-Baking-Loving heart: I got to meet one of the authors of some of my favorite cookbooks, the “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes” series. I have been a big fan since the first one came out in 2007, so I was thrilled when I heard Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. (yes, a bread-baking doctor) would be signing at a local independent bookstore. I hadn’t even known a new book was coming out, but I instantly wanted it: Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day. (Swoon!)
If you’ve ever drooled over The Great British Bakeoff or wished you could fill your kitchen with the aroma of freshly baked bread, these books could be for you too… or for that baker or wanna-be on your holiday shopping list. Continue reading
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