1. My husband is a good sport, when I call him up at work and say, “Call me back and leave a message. The answering machine is about to have 13 messages and I want to take a picture of it,” he understands and is happy to oblige. 2. This past November when my sister […]
1. The downside of country life in Floyd? My friend, Doug, thinks it’s having no Chinese take-out. He also said this at lunch recently: “You have to work twice as hard for half as much money, but it costs 1/3 less to live here.” You do the math. I’m hoping it all balances out. 2. […]
1. I’ve been signing my name xocolleen for a long time now. My spell check wants me to change it to xerox. 2. I’m thinking of buying some jewelry tools. I sold mine when I started doing foster care work 8 years ago, but I’m not doing that much anymore. The idea is to make […]
1. My first act of guerilla graffiti with my new label gun was to print up labels on bright red tape saying “I love you” and then stick them on certain people’s briefcases, cars, cards and such. 2. I’ve decided that my graffiti tag is XOXO. 3. My son Dylan’s birthday is February 13th (which […]
1. While playing scrabble last week with my friend Mara, at one point she confessed, “I want Sy Safransky (editor of the Sun Magazine) to love me.” I think I can work that line into a poem. 2. I also played with my friend Alex in the sunny alcove of her kitchen. At times her […]
1. I drive to Christiansburg about 3 times a month for things I can’t easily find in Floyd. Otherwise, I shop locally. 2. The first Christiansburg Wal-Mart was built on an arboretum owned by Virginia Tech. 3. When a K-mart went up soon after it, someone painted “ON THE 8TH DAY WE PAVED IT” in […]
AKA: Ode to the Muse 1. I’m still waiting for the Muse to write me a blank check. 2. I once described the Muses as “shy as a wallflowers” and “as fickle as a cats already fed.” 3. I can write without the Muse, but it’s like watering my garden with a hose in the […]
1. Last week when I drove to Christiansburg I had to slam on the brakes on Route 8 because I was looking at this woman on the sidewalk whose purple jacket caught my eye, which made me think maybe I should have a bumper sticker that says, “I Brake for Purple.” 2. On another occasion […]
1. My son, Josh, knows how much I love lingo. When visiting him in Asheville, I take notes when he and his friends talk because I love to record their hip use of language. He got me some slang flashcards for Christmas. The first thing we did with them was test me to find out […]
1. Number 36 in my “100 Things About Me” says, “I read all the Hobbit books, The Narnia Chronicles, The Borrowers series, and most of The Mossflower books out loud to my sons when they were young.” Last Christmas holiday, we all went to see the final installment in “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.” […]
1. I can never write, type, or say “number 9” without thinking of the Beatles song of the same name. 2. I remember when there were no malls. 3. When my son, Josh, was 5 years old, a few days after Christmas, he said, “Santa’s still watching us, right?” 4. Growing up, I knew from […]
AKA: 13 Things about My Father… 1. My father was a cross between Santa Claus and Jackie Gleason. 2. The last time I saw him, he was in the hospital after a car accident. I told my mom and sister to go for lunch and that I would meet up with them later because I […]
