Slice of Life

    • Fireworks

      Thanks to Fran for inspiring this post. My neighborhood is one that really likes their fireworks. Like the first of the season will start to go off in June and the occasional leftovers will continue until about September. While it’s fun to watch them from our deck on Fourth of…

    • Lights out

      What is going on outside? Why does it sound like someone is doing light construction on the house at five o’clock in the morning? I laid in bed wondering if I should get up and investigate. Surely, my husband was already on it. Turned out he was the cause of…

    • Inertia

      Now that summer is upon us, I’m struggling to get things done. Not because I’m too busy, but because of physics. Newton’s first law of motion or something like that–a body at rest remains at rest. Turns out it’s a lot easier to check things off the to-do list when…

    • Lazy writer

      I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while now–the use of emojis as lazy writing. It’s a befitting topic for today because I’m feeling pretty lazy as a writer. So often I want to use an emoji as punctuation. While I know it’s commonplace to send them in a…

    • Celebrations

      Today I had the opportunity to have quick check-ins with teachers at one of the schools I work at. Each conversation started with celebrations or wins for the year. What a JOY it was to hear about kids’ growth in writing skills, as well as their confidence! It was so…

    • 4-4-4

      Thanks Elisabeth for the inspiration! The Hello Kitty paper coffee cup that sits atop my desk has two creases that irk me to no end. But when I’m extra annoyed I remind myself that this cup traveled all the way from Taipei–no easy feat for a piece of cardboard. Standing…

    • Did I say too much?

      Thank you to Tammy for leading me to this story, Tiny Oily Halos which inspired me to not skip writing today. I am an oversharer. Not the gruesome-details-of-a-medical-procedure type, more of a let-me-tell-you-my-life-story type. Actually, if you’ve read some of my previous blog posts, this might seem pretty obvious: my…

    • Erosion

      I took these photos on Carmel Beach a couple of weekends ago. What is amazing is that those little caves and crevices in the rock are usually hidden by sand. Storms erode the sand and eventually it will be brought back. I have been walking this beach with my husband…

    • Earthquake

      As a native Californian, earthquakes have always been a normal part of life–literally. Growing up, I was reminded many times by my mom, that the Sylmar earthquake, a big one, happened just a month after I was born. Have you ever seen the old movie L.A. Story? The scene below…

    • (Not so helpful) help desk

      “Vivian, why are all my calls going straight to messages?” It was my father-in-law on the phone. He had missed his taxi ride because it came from an unknown number. And I knew it was my fault. I think most people have some version of a love/hate relationship with technology.…