Tuesday, October 29th, is National Cat Day. According to the calendar, every day of the year is a day to be celebrated and is therefore dubbed National Something Day. Many days have several “somethings” to be celebrated, which works well for those who like to have options. My favorite so far (aside from Festivus, of course) is January 16th: National Nothing Day, a day dedicated to doing nothing. (Side note: If you plan to observe National Nothing Day, taking a leave day from work is probably a good idea.) If you’re interested in finding out what you should be celebrating each day, here’s a helpful link: https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com With National Cat Day approaching, I decided it would be…

When I get to know someone and tell them what I’ve seen or about the things that have happened in my life, I sometimes wonder if they think I exaggerate or make up stories. Often, I will throw a “This is true, I swear” statement somewhere in the story as I tell it, especially if I notice a look of disbelief on someone’s face. When telling the story of finding out that my dad wasn’t my biological father and that it turns out it was his friend (also our neighbor) who was half responsible for my existence, I make sure to include how I spent my whole childhood and much…

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe   It’s his 95th birthday, and he’s just finished getting dressed for our outing. Preparing for this (or any) outing takes my Uncle Donny much longer than when he was a younger man. My brother, sister-in-law, and I have all traveled here to celebrate his birthday. We sat at the kitchen table fifteen minutes earlier, visiting with him, Aunt Betty, and Cousin Russ, and we probably should have cut that part of the visit short a little earlier to give Uncle Donny plenty of time to…

Summer officially ends on September 22, and the chill in the air this morning was a reminder that autumn will arrive soon. I love fall and everything that comes with it: the trees proudly display their leaves in stunning shades of orange, yellow, red, and brown, the cool (not cold) temperatures that, for some reason, make the air feel cleaner, a hot cup of coffee on a brisk Sunday morning, and most of all, the feelings of nostalgia that every year accompany the arrival of the season. Halloween is another thing I love about fall, and just like Ralphie never forgot his beloved Red Rider, I will never forget the…

I just had a birthday, and with it came the realization that I am now a member of a group I never imagined I’d belong to: The Old Maids Club. You remember the Old Maid card game, right? It’s the one where the loser was the one who ended up with the Old Maid card—but how many of us considered that we might one day be the Old Maid? I certainly didn’t see it coming, and, like most kids, thoughts about the future didn’t go far beyond the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog. If mention of the Christmas catalog, with its legendary toy section, gives you the warm fuzzies,…

This upcoming September will be sixteen years that I haven’t had a drink of alcohol—not even one sip. I don’t say this because I’m looking for kudos or words of congratulations; I say it because I wanted to write about one of the things I had to do when I first quit drinking that helped stop me from falling off the wagon. It is something they talk about in recovery programs, but I didn’t learn it through a program. As with almost every challenge in life, I figured it out the hard way (which I’ve written about before). I watched football regularly, and my favorite team was the Miami Dolphins.…

A few weeks ago, I was on the internet and saw something about what it means when you find a white feather. Because I never see white birds (other than Seagulls at the beach), I thought the chances of coming across a white feather seemed slim, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I quickly forgot about it and continued with whatever I’d been looking at or for. Several days later, I took my dog out to do her business, and when I looked down, there it was—a single, pristine, white feather. I stood there looking at it and thinking how curious it was that I’d seen that thing…

There’s a one-word question people often ask that rarely elicits a concise answer—that question is: Why? Have you ever asked your teen why they did something they shouldn’t have or didn’t do something they were supposed to do? If so, chances are that the answer you received was, “I dunno.”  Your first instinct may tell you that they’re being a smartass or maybe just giving you a lazy reply, but if you think about it, how many times have you asked yourself the same question about something and found that you struggled to come up with a better answer? This is especially true when you want to know why something…

I love a good quote, especially when the author of the quote used a quill to write it. What constitutes a “good” quote? Well, for me, it’s one that not only rings true but also gets me thinking—recently, I came across this one that checks both boxes: Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (side note: What a GREAT name) There are less eloquent variations of the same concept, but those tend to compare actions to words. We’ve all heard, “Actions speak louder than words,” and the reference to the opposite—hypocrisy—in, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  But I like this…

I recently went through the camera roll on my phone to do a bit of cleanup. You never realize how many useless and nearly identical photos you have until you look at each one to decide whether to keep or delete it. The number of screenshots of ads for shows and movies I thought I might like to watch soon (some more than a year old—yikes) was ridiculous. And there were even more screenshots of cake and other very bad-for-you dishes—things I shouldn’t even be looking at, let alone making. There are some photos, though, that I will never part with, and while doing my cleanup, I came across a…