For decades, I’ve been collecting quotes, tacking them one atop another on my bulletin board. Digging through the layers can be like trying to read my own memoir, only cryptic, as I sometimes puzzle to recall what was happening in my life that caused a quote to resonate enough to be saved.
I recently wrote about those times when life offers an opportunity to deliver a clever retort, and asked readers to share a few of their own.
I never went to Rutgers, but one of my favorite sweatshirts suggests that I did. It’s a bright red hoodie, bought secondhand, that features a knight stabbing his sword through the T.
While reading a how-to article about developing characters when writing a story, I ran across a Maya Angelou quote that wedged itself in my head.
An old friend recently shared a situation he found himself in and asked for advice.
A few years back, I met a friend for dinner at Chili’s Grill at the Town Center Mall. It was a perfect summer night, so we opted to eat at one of the tables outside.
“What does it say about technology that I’m now starting my days being told I’ve displeased my toothbrush?”
When I sat down at my computer, I intended to write about a new technology issue. This I attempted while a squirrel dangled upside down like a bat from my elbow. Moments earlier, this same squirrel had shoved a wet dish rag down the neck of my hoodie.
Over the years, I’ve been asked why I kept the surname Fuller, even though we weren’t married all that long and had no children together. To be honest, I kept it because my maiden name, Tauscher, is difficult for people to spell, much less pronounce. And the name game was aggravating enough …
I had finished the book I was reading, had no lingering work to complete, and Don was chasing a deadline, so would be tied up for hours. It was late enough not to want to start a new project of my own, so I snuggled into bed with the remote control.
My best friend, Anna James, likes to start the New Year by choosing a word that represents what she wants to cultivate in her life. Among those she’s chosen in the past are “creativity” and “habits.”
By the time these words reach your paper, my nest will once again be empty. My girl will have moved, this time to a small town just outside of Charlotte. Celeste has a new job lined up, which she’ll be starting in January. She has a great little apartment waiting for her with one of her best…
I promise this space won’t be perpetually filled with stories of squirrels, but after my last, I received a few emails I just had to share.
This year for Halloween, Don made a giant spider out of painted pool noodles and exercise balls, secured it to our roof, and then made a life-sized person, which he wrapped in synthetic webbing and hung from our gutter.
A few readers have asked for an update on the baby squirrel we found days before leaving on a two-week trip to my brother’s house. When we first came upon the little guy, he had been trapped in a storage building and was badly dehydrated. But since the wildlife rescue groups we reached out t…
For years, if one of my friends or family members were to say, “You’re such a Karin,” it might mean that person had displayed a feat of such uncommon clumsiness it rivaled one of my graceless moves. It could also suggest someone was guilty of slipping a disproportionate amount of their dinne…
Prior to sitting down at my computer, I spent most of the last hour lying on the bathroom floor as a squirrel tucked walnuts around me. He’d take breaks here and there to tackle my hand and I’d wrestle him for a bit before giving his belly a good scratching, and then he’d race back to my sle…
When my column last appeared in March in the Gazette-Mail, our part of the world had just begun to steepen its slide into all that is COVID-19. My office was scrambling to convert our technology so the staff could work remotely, and we were logging long days trying to find the suddenly impos…
It was pretty this morning. Unseasonably warm where we live. A single-day break between near constant showers.
There was a connection between the two things I didn’t recognize on my own.
Once upon a time, there was a very big couch that dwelled, for many years, in a very small house. Our very small house.
It wasn’t so long ago I was telling a co-worker I believed my days of having strange pets were behind me.
I come from a long line of tightwads who pride themselves on their skills at making do. We fix what’s broken and repurpose in ways that can either be clever or border on nuts.
One of the perks of this column-writing business is I get to talk regularly, usually via email, with people who have some of the most interesting perspectives on the situations about which I write. It can be a bit like having a slow, yet well-considered conversation, as the back and forth ca…
