After high school, three friends and I piled into a Plymouth station wagon and drove down to Florida. My summer job didn’t start for another week, and my steady girlfriend was off to Europe to meet some distant relatives and travel. She was far more adventurous than I, and while that whim of a trip…
Read more

You know the bumper stickers reading, People Suck? I would buy that one. I am kidding. Sort of. In all honesty, it isn’t necessarily that people suck; well, unless you are talking about my mother-in-law, and that dynamic just can’t be defined by a bumper sticker! I kid, I kid. Anyway, back to my point: it isn’t…
Read more

She wasn’t planned, but I am so glad we had her. My daughter flipped my life upside down, and I landed on my feet, grounded and stronger. Before she came along, I was extremely career driven. Granted, there is nothing wrong with being driven to excel in your career, but my drive would’ve taken me…
Read more

You know the people who act perpetually happy? Or, the individuals who purposefully plant seeds of discord? I would use a cloak of invisibility to observe them behind closed doors to see who they really are. For those who are always, “good”, is it a façade, simply a Facebook version of life? Perhaps they are…
Read more

These lessons were actually not modeled for me; I want to break the dysfunctional cycle for the next generation.

The lesson I learned? Pride truly comes before the fall. I grew up in the Catholic Church; I was baptized as a baby, went through confirmation, said my Hail Mary and Our Father prayers, went to mass on Sunday, all of it. For majority of my life, I considered myself a good person. I raised…
Read more

Paradigm shifts in life tend to be those around new life, death, or great change. When I was a little girl, I counted down the days till summer camp. While only one week, I anticipated those seven days in Hocking Hills more than Christmas morning! The days flew by – like time does when you…
Read more

I remember when I was a new mom. It was hard, especially with the first kid. Once you have a second, or third or fourth, you look back and ask yourself, “Why did you worry so much!?” My mother-in-law imparted some words of wisdom I often reminded myself of during the child-rearing years: you have…
Read more

Everything about Columbus, Ohio is home for me. When I was younger, I wouldn’t have considered moving because I was too close to my dad. I have so many memories of him in this city. When he was 92, I remember sitting together on his porch swing during a crisp spring evening. With tea in…
Read more

Holidays have a way of dusting off old memories. Years ago, I worked on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, criminal activity doesn’t pause for the holidays, and after working a long shift on a covert assignment, I finally made it home around 5 a.m. on Christmas morning. I was hoping to grab a few hours of sleep…
Read more