Wash dishes. I mean it, wash dishes all the time. Do your own laundry. Gladly eat the food they have on hand, but pass on that special treat they just got from the States that they feel obliged to share with you. And then go wash some more dishes. Don’t treat your visit as a vacation at a resort. The missionaries are not there only to feed you and entertain you. Pull your weight. Speaking of entertaining, be easy to…
I have been absent a while, I know, roaming the mountains and plains and comeateries of Honduras. I’ll be back shortly with stories about a flopped beach trip and a not-flopped trip to Erandique. For now though, let me show you some of what’s been occupying me. I’ve been eating platos típicos, And so many tacos, And baleadas that would knock your socks off, And plantain chips for days, And garlic shrimp and pork chops and tajadas and seafood soup,…
Ah, the side hug. First off, who invented this thing? As a tall girl living in a short, side huggy world, I have a score to settle with that person. Truth be told, sometimes side hugs are inevitable, due to expectations or culture or other people’s preferences. And most of the time they work great, when the huggers have normal heights. But then there are those times when a shortish sort of guy is greeting a towering sort of girl,…
Go to the Dollar Tree. This is very necessary, for obvious reasons. Buy some of the less plastic looking bunches of leaves, leaf garlands, and some spicy candles for good measure. Go home and paw through the stuff you already own. Pull out things like old books, those wooden candle holders you know you have stashed somewhere, and other things that look somewhat autumnish. Maybe collect a few sticks or berries outside as well, if you live in the country. Throw the…
Gratitude is a funny thing. Contrary to how it seems it should be, it seems that the more luxuries a person has, the less thankfulness comes with them. There are many stories already written about this subject, about poor people dressed in rags who were as happy as could be, and kings slouching sullenly in their wealth-encrusted palaces. However, gratitude is a subject people can always stand to hear more of, am I right? The following stories are not about…
Since it’s my birthday, I thought I would bore you to tears interest you with twenty-five random bits of trivia concerning me. Teaching school was on the list of jobs I did not want for quite some time. Then I did it at a little school in Illinois, I don’t even quite know why, and it turned out to be one of the best years of my life. This year I am attempting to do twenty-five interesting things I’ve never done before, in…
The relationship between these two is something I’ve often thought about, and sometimes hated, even while grudgingly understanding that it must be so. But Kahlil Gibran explains the necessity of their intertwining so much better than I can. “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not…
As some of you may know, I am ever so slightly obsessed with New York City. So a few weeks ago I was chatting with Roman and Mimi, and I said, “Next time you go to NYC, let me know because I want to go along.” “Really,” they said, “do you mean the very next time? We are leaving in two days to go there!”Obviously there was nothing else for it but to buy a ticket up, take a day or…
This morning I unearthed a story I wrote when I was probably ten or eleven. Back story: when we all still lived at home, my dad bought a big yellow school bus, and together with my brothers, converted it into a custom motor home, just right for taking all nine of us to Costa Rica and back in a trip spanning five months. It was the adventure of a lifetime, complete with walking to church in gumboots because it was so…
So, one day when I had nothing much to do, Lyn was thinking about her life plan, and I eagerly agreed to write it for her, as that is just the kind of thing I love. I made her a beautiful life, complete with living in Europe and being a travel writer, and having a curly headed little daughter and an architect husband. However, my imagination drove me to have her husband tragically die by falling from the top of…
I love coffee. Goodness gracious, I love coffee. Life without the stuff is a bleak, howling wilderness, wrought with perils and tribulations and people biting other people’s heads off. However, with coffee, how the world changes. Awkward conversations are made a little less awkward when you have something hot to hold. Mornings are a little less dreadful when there’s a hot, aromatic drink awaiting. Studying is made a little easier when there is caffeine to assist. Long afternoons at…
Sometimes Ogden Nash just says it so much better than I ever could. Case in point: “Some singers sing of ladies’ eyes, And some of ladies lips, Refined ones praise their ladylike ways, And coarse ones hymn their hips. The Oxford Book of English Verse Is lush with lyrics tender; A poet, I guess, is more or less Preoccupied with gender. Yet I, though custom call me crude, Prefer to sing in praise of food. Food, Yes, food, Just any…