Life is good, right? We had already decided that we didn’t want to have kids. We’d been married for a few years and were enjoying life as a young married couple with three cats in a cute one bedroom apartment. Why mess things up? I had little confidence in my ability to be a parent,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Zero to Sixty in One Year
Doublecrossed by a Dummy
The heading of the ad in the local paper said “Recruiting for the Albany/El Cerrito Fire Department.” Listed below was information about a series of qualifying physical tests to be given at a nearby school. The tests included the dummy lift, the ladder climb and the hose pull. I asked myself: why not try out?… Continue Reading
one’s not half two. It’s two are halves of one, revisited
Dad walks me down the “aisle” A happy memory of my dad as we walk down the front path of my in-law’s house, right after he slipped a little. We’re smiling because neither one of us fell and ruined our entrance. He will have been gone ten years this month. Thanks for the memory, Dad.
A Cat’s Dream
Raoul says, “I’m helping!” When we were first married, my husband and I lived in a WWII era four-plex on a busy corner in Albany, California, next door to Berkeley. The bottom apartment on the left in the modest white clapboard house with green shutters was our home for four and a half years.… Continue Reading
one’s not half two. It’s two are halves of one
I woke up that morning thinking: today I will glow. I always heard that brides get this special glow you can’t fake or create with makeup, it just happens the day you get married, so I checked the mirror expecting to find it, except it wasn’t there yet, and I thought, well, maybe it creeps… Continue Reading
Rules of Engagement
There were rules, but we chose to ignore them. Proposal on bended knee? Nah. Diamond ring? Oh, please.We were not the knee-dropping, diamond ring-popping kind in those days. Instead, my boyfriend of 4 1/2 years came over to my house one afternoon in February, dodged the sheepdog and the–by then– two cats, and my three… Continue Reading
Into the Box Marked "Miscellaneous"
And another month just flew by…but I’ll catch the next one starting tomorrow. I got it! I got it!According to my self-inflicted schedule, this is the day I should roll over to the next five-year span: 21-25. But there are a few odds and ends to toss into a box before I move ahead. I… Continue Reading
About a Cat
While I was still working at the phone company and taking classes at Cal, I answered a “roommates wanted ad” for a house on Sutter Street in Berkeley. It was time to move out of the one-bedroom apartment I was sharing with a friend who was dating my ex-boyfriend. Awkward. Really, really awkward. So I went… Continue Reading
Close Cover Before Striking
For a brief period, I worked part-time as a telephone operator in San Francisco and attended college in Berkeley. And also for a brief period, I was on strike at both places. As a card-carrying member of the Communication Workers of America, I was obligated to walk out when it was time to go on… Continue Reading
The First Time
I was nineteen the first time I got a pet. A hamster. Why? I’m not sure. But my roommate thought it was high time I did it, and a hamster seemed like a good gateway pet. And it turned out that Sweet Loretta (her name comes from the lyrics to the Beatles’ song Get Back:… Continue Reading