At Least She Had No One But Herself To Blame

“Sorry I’m late,” L’s Mother told me at one point.  “I had a really lousy bagger at self-checkout who didn’t know what she was doing . . .”

Because There’s Very Little Reasoning One Can Do With Storms OR Four-Year-Olds

While I believe in the value of being reasonable, the moment that belief starts to be used against me is the moment I remind myself that being reasonable is neither my only option, nor necessarily my best option.

Just Because It Reminds You Of Your Childhood Doesn’t Mean You LIKED It

Today I came across an honest to goodness moon pie (something of a novelty where I’m currently residing), and an indescribable sense of happiness came over me, first at the sight of it, then at the pleasure of not eating it.

(No disrespect to moon pies, but I’m just not a big fan of marshmallows.  Put bluntly, I’d rather eat the flies off a shoo-fly pie than most marshmallow based desserts.)

And The Scariest Thing I’ve Heard A Four-Year-Old Say This Year Was . . .

Computers sure are heavy . . .

– My son, L. (Overheard by me approximately 30 seconds after I went to the kitchen for a snack.)

(The computer was fine.  On the floor . . . but fine.)

An Odd Christmas Thought, And Yet . . .

I don’t know if I should applaud your determination or bemoan your obsession.

– Robert Alan (Said to Lala regarding her personal quest to ensure there was pumpkin pie for the holidays.)

She Was Talking About Buying Insurance. I Wasn’t.

“People our age are cheaper than people in their 20’s,” L’s mother announced the other day.

“Isn’t that just the way of the world?” I sighed.

So It’s Really Not That Impressive

Yesterday was one of those days which reminded me that as much as I enjoy being right (and I do), being right once means that you only have twenty-four hours to do it twice more if you want to beat the broken clock’s record.

Take A Breath And Think About It

For a lot of people, holidays are the time of year they hear updates on the “family news” (i.e., who’s pregnant, who’s married, who’s sick, and who’s dying and/or dead . . . which is a pretty terrible grouping of categories when you think about it.).  I’m no exception in this, but I’ll admit that I don’t always listen as . . . attentively as I could.

So with that in mind, it shouldn’t come as a total surprise that upon being told that an uncle of mine “needed oxygen all the time now,” my first response was “So do I!”

Talking Shop (Part Two)

I’m kidding.  That is my point, of course.

People like cake because they like the taste and, yes, a steady diet of cake can be unhealthy, but I’ve always been a little worried about the mindset of people who eat nothing but bad tasting (“But nutritious!”) food and feel themselves superior for it.  So long as it’s part of an overall healthy pattern, I thinking eating cake now and then is a good thing, and I think that making a good cake is an honorable thing.  Some cakes are just sweetness and light, and some cakes are layer upon dark layer, but none of that is as important as how well it has been made, and while things like inexperience can excuse making a bad cake, there is simply no excuse for serving one.

I feel the same way about writing.

(And, no, I didn’t have any cake yesterday, nor am I likely to have any today either, but you can rest assured that I’ll be on the lookout for a good slice of cake over the course of the next few days.)

Talking Shop (Part One)

Lately I’ve been indulging in a lot of writing “shop talk,” and one of the topics that came up is what do audiences really want?  While that’s a broad question, of course, it was generally agreed that “sweet and light . . . like cake,” tends to do well.  And while others pondered the relative merits of creating hand-crafted tiramisu in a world that just wanted cake, I found myself thinking, “I like cake.”  I’m fond of a good tiramisu too, but it’s different kind of indulgence than cutting off a good-sized slice of triple chocolate cake, for instance.

Honestly, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I am sure I could go for a slice of cake right about now.