ABOUT

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  I’m a writer. I write. I write as I am compelled to, and as often as circumstances allow. I write stories with a large grain of self-deprecation. When I was five, my guru was Lucille Ball. These days it’s Davis Sedaris. My sense of humor has been both a blessing and a curse. I have gone for long stretches without indulging in it, and it still wakes me up in the middle of the night, often taunting me at three a.m. with the absurdities of the daily interactions I find in the world around me. This space is my humor blog. It began as a travel blog. However, my life has a mind of its own. Although our travels have been temporarily derailed, I have many short stories and anecdotes fitting this equally absurd electronic highway.

In the previous century, I scribbled in lined notebooks—stacks of them—currently held up somewhere in the vicinity of my basement, cloaked in nondescript cardboard moving boxes. They contain my humor, angst, dreams, and failings. These themes have taken turns in lead roles, but humor has been the preponderant in informing my stories, and my saving grace. Without it, I would be piloting my life on one engine.

I find humor it in the adornments of the varied hats I’ve worn over the years. Being a woman, first and foremost, has informed the fit and feel of my experiences. Navigating the crossroads in my life has been daunting, to say the least. I’ve learned to dodge bullets and absorb jarring assaults to my reality. I’ve also had to clean up many a painful mess of my own making. I didn’t always choose the best path, but the outcomes, nonetheless, continued to lay at my feet what I ultimately needed. The writings are born of a relentless bank of stored details, which my family and friends have found amusing and exasperating.

Becoming a mother at the age of twenty-five opened a behemoth portal to my adulthood, and sparked anew my need to record my impressions. I’ve been a wife to two extraordinary men. They have enriched my life with their kind natures and their senses of humor. And they each have been tolerant of my musings and rambling stories that tended to start from creation. Willing champions both of my enthusiasm in grasping something new, even when my inclinations stretched beyond my means or inherent capabilities.

Humor has healing powers. At times, I’ve had to scoop up tremendous strength from my family and friends when life decided to send me a good ass-kicking, but writing about it helped ground me. I’d built within me the dexterity to make my way to the bit of irony built into every adversity, and when I found it, it felt like breathing fresh air. Humor has been a lifeline of sorts, an offering of hope when righting myself after a good blow to my sensibilities. Humor is a treasured trait my mother passed on to me. A legacy that reveals a semblance of hope in the midst of the tumult of life. Something I hope I have passed on to my children.

This is my humor blog. Which should say it all, but as I am fond of a good lead up, I’ll explain further. I hope to offer a humorous perspective of the sometimes ridiculous things that happen in my daily life, or in my mind which has a life of its own, and the cast of sometimes unsuspecting characters who cross my path. I will tell you about these things; incidents, accidents, mistakes, misperceptions, ironic, unexpected happenings that make me laugh…sometimes only on the inside…sometimes with my shirt pulled up over my smirk. These are the stories I wish to tell. I hope you find something unexpected in them that draws a smile of recognition.

HOW DID I GET HERE?

I was born and raised on the south side of St Louis, where I still reside. I am the 7th of 9 sibs, raised in a catholic household, and attended catholic schools. I graduated from an all-girls catholic high school in 1976. I was married for over 15 years to Tim, the father of my three amazing children. After a heart-wrenching divorce in 1997, I completed my degree in psychology from Webster University in St Louis. Thirteen years later, I took up yoga and decided I wanted to complete a teacher training program. I received my certificate from Kripalu in 2010. In between, I met and ultimately married my husband, Steve, in 2002. With Steve came the role of step-mom to his three children and the title of Daughter-in-law to his 1st generation American Sicilian parents.

My husband Steve and I were partners in a carpentry company for over 15 years until his recent retirement, and I have taken up running our two new Airbnb properties. I look forward to continuing our travels and sharing some of those experiences here. Although on hiatus due to a few rather scary health problems, we can't wait to get on the road again in our Airstream, exploring the country I’ve seen very little of. Aside from the scenery, I hope to, once again, hike some adventurous trails and pretend to like fishing for my husband. I plan to write while on the road or hold up in my room, trying not to wake my granddaughter from her nap. She rules my world these days. I will share our experiences and a photo or two. I can't wait to meet the characters we will inevitably encounter in our explorations, or what happenstance inspires me to share a nugget of humor here and there. In this space, you will get an insight into the workings of my brain…. Can’t say you weren’t warned…