Author Archive
I’ve always wanted to take a two-week vacation. One week just doesn’t cut it. You arrive with all kinds of hopes and plans, and all of the sudden it’s Wednesday, and you’re staring at the end of the week and starting to think about packing up.
But this year, we did it. Two weeks at the beach. Two weeks of island living. No McDonald’s. No chain hotels. No traffic. No alarm clocks. Who needs a watch? Who needs a hair dryer? We slathered on 50 sunscreen and spent most of our time outside. Yes, it was hot on Dauphin Island, Ala., but not as hot as it was here. And if it’s going to be hot, I’d rather be at the beach.
Re-entry has been a little rough.
My daughter and I were driving on Central near the UofM when traffic started slowing. When the car in front of mine drove on, I could see the problem. There was a tiny white and gray kitten struggling to get out of the road. She’d already been hit by a car — one of her legs wasn’t working right. She looked incredibly scared and frantic.
I put my hazard lights on and slowed to a stop. By the time the traffic got around me and I could safely get out of the car, I couldn’t find the kitten. She had just been right there and I knew she couldn’t go very far in the shape she was in. I looked under my car just in time to see her tail disappear as she climbed up into my wheel well. Now what was I going to do? I couldn’t get to her and I couldn’t drive anywhere.
The tax-free holiday starts Friday and goes through Sunday. Last year I decided not to battle the crowds, but I did go online and order some new uniforms for my kids, so I saved a little money.
Some people have said you get a better deal AFTER the tax holiday when items get discounted. Have you found that to be true?
Are you shopping tax-free this weekend?
I have to tell my sweet-souled son who is away at camp that our cat died this week. I’m not sure how to do it.
Tea Cake — named after a character in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” — was 17 years old. I had him most of my adult life, and for several years longer than I’ve known my husband.
He was a great cat, all black and panther-like. He ran down the sidewalk to greet me when I came home from work. He slept in the crook of my arm at night, often under the covers just like a human. He was really low maintenance. We didn’t have a litter box for years because he preferred to take care of business outside.
When we gave our daughter a kitten (Rosie) for her 7th birthday, John William wanted a pet, too. He asked if he could have a cat. I knew Dad wouldn’t go for that (he thought two cats was two too many), so I told him he could share Tea Cake with me. Read the rest of this entry »
There are no spoilers in this post.
I’d been trying to stay away from the Internet so I could discover the ending of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on my own. I even plugged my ears whenever the kids would bring up the latest rumors from the Web.
But after all of the reports of the photos of the actual pages of the actual book, I could feel my fingers tingling whenever I went online to check my e-mail.
Then the New York Times came out with a review of “Deathly Hallows” after a New York bookstore put it on sale prematurely. The Baltimore Sun got an early look, too.
I knew they wouldn’t divulge the ending, so I read them, and they piqued my interest.
And then I couldn’t help myself. It was like I was under the Imperious Curse.
