People who have lived with a personality-disordered individual can recognize one a mile away. We are held hostage to the whims, moods, and tantrums of someone who brings chaos and alarm wherever she goes. She will forget (or deny) anything she says when it’s convenient to. The rest of us will still be reeling days  Read the Rest…

It started with a stray thought on a Facebook page the day of the election.  Teresa Shook in Hawaii invited some of her friends to go to D.C. to protest.  Then came yesterday: marches all over the world.  I was on-line early in the morning on January 21 sobbing over what had already happened and  Read the Rest…

I’m up on Whidbey Island writing a novel.  I have no idea how to write a novel.  This novel actually began in 1997 with a very long short story that I thought would develop itself.  I thought a novel would spool from my imagination without my having to think about anything like structure or an  Read the Rest…

The day after the election the pall that settled over Seattle was dreadful.  It was as though someone had died in every home–except for the guy around the corner who has had a big sign in his front window for eight years: No Obamanation.  For a month he had a Trump/Pence sign plastered over that.   Read the Rest…

“People have always been good at imagining the end of the world, which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of change in a world without end.” Rebecca Solnit (Thank you, Jenni, for this quotation) I am no stranger to panic.  I suffered for nearly 20 years with panic disorder.  A counter-intuitive  Read the Rest…

You all know my neighbor Gwen by now. My neighbor Gwen who knows something about just about everything. When it comes to gossip and goings-on, Gwen and I have pretty much got the neighborhood covered.  In spite of her tall fence, she seems to know a lot about what goes on to the southeast while  Read the Rest…

(This is the final post in a series about a 40th college reunion Walla Walla Begin Again Doin’ Our Stuff Again Memories and Menus) When last we met I was curled up in fetal position in Mem after getting away from the raucous music at the all class reunion picnic on Ankeny Field.  When the  Read the Rest…

This is the third in a series posts about a 40th Whitman College reunion that begins with Walla Walla Begin Again. On Saturday morning were the class photos, the parade of classes and convocation.  For the photos we all congregated on the steps of “Mem,” the Memorial Building, a truly iconic structure to Whitman students.  Read the Rest…

(This is the second in a series about a 40th college reunion.  The first is Walla Walla Begin Again) On Friday morning, I sat with Debi over coffee for a long time before walking the few miles to campus.  Mary Ellis pulled up alongside as I walked along Birch, headed for the Marcus Street foot  Read the Rest…

(This is the first in a series.) This past weekend was the 40th reunion of the class of 76 at Whitman College.  All my favorite people minus one were going to be there so it was shaping up to be something special.  Walla Walla has always been a magical place to me, going back to  Read the Rest…