oneword.com

“This is not rocket science”…something we often say when we want to explain that a task or problem can be solved by the less educated among us. But really…do any of us know just how hard rocket science is or not? I know I have no clue.

Posted By Andie On 01.25.2011 @ 7:50 am

Blotches of red ink stained the rug. Now that it was drying it looked like blood. What was she going to do? The addresses—crimson on ivory envelopes looked lovely in crisp calligraphy, but the rug… How did she manage to knock the bottle over? Why had she been working on the floor?

Posted By Andie On 01.12.2011 @ 8:19 am

I wish I had more support from the members of my immediate family. They all do their share around the house to a degree, but they don’t hold up their end of the emotional tent. There always seem to be at least one pole that’s tilting or missing all together. It’s hard to function when one side of the tent is falling down.

Posted By Andie On 01.09.2011 @ 11:52 am

I wish I had more support for the members of my immediate family. They all do their share around the house to a degree, but they don’t hold up their end of the emotional tent. There always seem to be at least one pole that’s tilting or missing all together.

Posted By Andie On 01.09.2011 @ 11:51 am

Life can be like fiction at times—almost too surreal to be believed. When that happens, it feels as if you are a character in a book, a figment of someone’s imagination who has no control over anything that happens. But, of course, we have total control over most aspects of our lives; we just need to find the remote.

Posted By Andie On 01.06.2011 @ 7:52 am

A phrase can be as damaging as a full sentence when it’s uttered with contempt or disrespect. A phrase can be as lovely as a sonnet when whispered with passion. A phrase can turn your head and make you smile when spoken with love.

Posted By Andie On 01.05.2011 @ 8:14 am

She got a notice that my lights were about to be turned off. Why? How did this happen? She searched through the mountain of papers on her desk, leveling it like some coal min process until she could extract the statement from the power company. There it was in big red letters: PAST DUE!

Posted By Andie On 01.03.2011 @ 7:36 am

Today I feel lucky. Lucky to be alive. Lucky to have the work I do, the husband I have, the life I lead. I don’t always feel this way though; it changes from day to day. Somedays I feel like the unluckiest person alive. Then I realize…luck has nothing to do with it.

Posted By Andie On 12.28.2010 @ 10:08 am

I was a student of mythology when I was in middle school. My friend Alice and I read everything we could get our hands on. My favorite to this day is the tale of Persephone and her abduction into the Underworld—why we have Winter and Spring. I love pomegranites because of it.

Posted By Andie On 12.27.2010 @ 9:31 am

I would like to alter my life, perhaps take it in a bit at the seems, or let out the hem—nothing drastic, but definitely something is needed to make it fit me better. Right now it seems too loose, and I get lost in the extra fabric, looking for a way out.

Posted By Andie On 12.23.2010 @ 1:04 pm

Sometimes my life feels like a box of paperclips—all tangled together and unable to be grabbed at easily. I wish I could untangle certain aspects of my life as easily as I do those clips, but they seem to be too intwined and definitely not agreeable to being separated.

Posted By Andie On 12.22.2010 @ 1:41 pm

A stick in the eye, a stick in the mud, stick to it, stick to your guns. Keep going no matter how hard it gets. Trudge on and maybe you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel, then you can stick it to the man and get on the stick and roar on outta there. At least I hope so!

Posted By Andie On 12.16.2010 @ 5:44 pm

I remember learning to climb a willow tree that was in my cousin’s yard. I had never tried climbing a tree before because all we had in my neighborhood where giant sugar maples whose tall, straight trunks did not lend themselves to climbing per se—the best you could do was shinny up a feet or two.

Posted By Andie On 12.08.2010 @ 7:41 am

I’ve had a number of dreams where my teeth break off. I don’t remember any of the circumstances of any of the dreams; I think they’re all different. But they all culminate in an event where my teeth break off. They don’t fall out, but literally crumble, leaving me with a jagged smile.

Posted By Andie On 12.07.2010 @ 7:44 am

I wish I could just transport myself to my parents’ home 3,000 miles across the US. I love being there for holidays and special events, but traveling is so hard, costly and time-consuming. Someday perhaps I can just say, “Beam me up Scotty,” and I’ll be there!

Posted By Andie On 12.01.2010 @ 2:32 pm

I had a dark golden retriever named Copper Penny Lane. I didn’t spay her right away, thinking I might let her have a litter of puppies. I would have named all the puppies after Beatles’ songs: Copper My Dear, Maxwell’s Copper Hammer, Copper Strawberry Fields…but I decided I would never find 7-10 people I deemed worthy of taking a paper, so I had her spayed before she was two.

Posted By Andie On 11.30.2010 @ 10:44 am

Sr. Jovita taught me how to diagram a sentence when I was in the 8th grade. For nearly two months, we did homework consisting of parsing all the nouns or verbs on a selection of pages in our reader. Then we’d spend time breaking down the sentences on the blackboard, drawing angled lines to place the clauses.

Posted By Andie On 11.29.2010 @ 7:40 am

If I understood how difficult a job parenthood would be, I would probably not have signed up for the task. But unlike other forms of employment, where you can quit at a moment’s notice, you’re stuck for a minimum of 18 years. One can, however, be fired…so it’s important to do the job well.

Posted By Andie On 11.25.2010 @ 2:57 pm

It killed me to see what has become of public education in this country. Standardization, dumbing down to bridge the achievement gap, blaming everything on the teachers. I believe it is society who should be blamed for failing to solve the problems of poverty so inherent in this country.

Posted By Andie On 11.18.2010 @ 12:04 pm

Duck and cover…that’s how I was taught to survive a nuclear attack. Honestly, can you believe it? Hide under your wood and steel school desk and the radioactive fallout won’t get you. It seems our government has always found ways to distract the people from the real problems and the real things to fear.

Posted By Andie On 11.17.2010 @ 2:48 pm

Roy Rogers was my favorite cowboy growing up. My Italian grandmother would tell me bedtime stories in her lilting accent about Roy and Trigger and Pat Brady and “Nellie Bell.” They usually ended with Dale Evans getting killed so Roy could marry me.

Posted By Andie On 11.16.2010 @ 4:46 pm

My office looks like a junkyard. Despite the time I spend filing and organizing, within days it is back to a chaotic state of dumped articles that have no where else to go. Coats, baskets of magazines, free weights, satchels, purses, hats, dog leashes, boxes of things to be filed…all find their way into this 10 x 10-ft space where I try to write.

Posted By Andie On 11.15.2010 @ 8:12 am

I think it’s lousy that the time change from zone to zone affects this site. I guess I didn’t go on until after 9PM PST last night, so I got the word lousy again this morning. I don’t want to wait until 9PM tonight for the next word.

Posted By Andie On 11.09.2010 @ 9:01 am

My response to today’s word is lousy—probably because I’m trying to write in my office with both my husband and 15-yr-old daughter home. I can hear his TV—The SImpsons—off to my right and her singing along with pop music from above. How can I concentrate on anything? WHy did I even try?

Posted By Andie On 11.08.2010 @ 8:11 pm

I like to keep a sewing kit handy when I travel. Lost buttons, ripped seams, downed hems can all make for an unpleasant stay if I’m out of town. It’s noting fancy, just some assorted threads, needles, safety pins, and masking tape (great for mending a downed hem in a flash). Do I sound too much like Martha Stewart?

Posted By Andie On 11.05.2010 @ 8:51 am

I wanted to be on the stage when I was young. I started singing along with Broadway cast albums from the time I could talk. I remember singing “Let Me Entertain You” at the age of 5 to an adoring crowd of relatives. I sang in musicals and bands all through high school and into my young adult life, but eventually I had to join the real world.

Posted By Andie On 11.02.2010 @ 7:59 am

My 15-yr-old cat has no fangs. She has no canines or side teeth—just the tiny ones in front—top and bottom. She had 11 teeth pulled last month—all rotten. Poor kitty; she eats nothing but canned catfood now.

Posted By Andie On 11.01.2010 @ 10:46 am

She could hear the siren in the distance. The lights on the warning tower were flashing red at a constant pulse. She’d have to go to the safety of the basement—now! But where were the cats? The dog was by her side…but the cats were nowhere to be found. She couldn’t go down without them.

Posted By Andie On 10.28.2010 @ 7:55 am

I want to be serene most, if not all, of the time. But how can I be when life is anything but? I am the parent of a willful and remarkably stupid teenager. By stupid I mean without common sense and with all of the delusions of grandeur that come with the age. Serenity…will it ever find a place in my life?

Posted By Andie On 10.27.2010 @ 9:19 am

The past few weeks have been hell. The past few months have been hell. What’s ahead? More hell? Purgatory? Limbo? Heaven? Only the coming weeks will tell.

Posted By Andie On 10.25.2010 @ 10:39 am