How My Night Went From a Freelance Writing Panel to a Stripping Chipmunk

Walking back to my car in Portland after a freelance writing panel, I could hear the people whooping it up from the sidewalk. I peered through the windowed door to see a coffeehouse with an eclectic crowd applauding a clown.

Well, she was kind of a clown. She was more of a clown before a clown dons on the red nose, curly wig and big shoes. There wasn’t even a billowy polkadotted jumper for this maven. Instead, she was rockin’ some black fishnets and glitter.… Read more ...

Truthful tales behind the eyeroll-inducing parenting cliches

Being a parent you live out all the tiresome cliches in truth:

  • The days are long, but the years are short.
  • They’re only this age once.
  • You wear your heart on your sleeve.

Usually cliches do nothing but make my eyes roll in the back of my head a la Linda Blair, but the one about the heart on your sleeve recently hit me in spades.

As most of you know, we left Chicago for Portland this summer. And since we didn’t know many folks … Read more ...