Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Succinctly Yours Week 219: It’s a Bird It’s a Plane It’s a Bloke in Long Underwear

It’s time again for Succinctly Yours, a jolly meme sent forth by Grandma of Grandma’s Goulash. Each week, Grandma posts a bloody brilliant photo for us to come up with a story of 140 words or 140 characters or fewer to go with it. The bonus word this week was “posture.”



The royal guards had to radically change their posture to fit into the telephone box with their hats on. It still fit better with the uniform than a smart phone.   132



While in the UK, Superman thought he had to watch his posture after emerging from the phone box. Londoners saw the outfit and told him to straighten up and fly right.   136



The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. ~Steven Furtick

Monday, May 25, 2015

Succinctly Yours Week 218: It’s All Ghouda

It’s time again for Succinctly Yours, a micro meme assigned by the delightful Grandma of Grandma’s Goulash. Each week, Grandma posts a photo so that we might do our homework and compose a story of 140 words or 140 characters or fewer to go with it. The bonus word this week was “cheese.”
Spurious High was forced to close its doors after the science fair scandal. Students brought a project showing what they’d learned about the moon’s layers of cheese.   139

Cheese Preparatory Academy closed down after a student was removed for being lactose intolerant. The board overturned the dismissal as intolerance of intolerance.   140

“I agree with the cheese board,” superintendent Colby Romano was quoted as saying. “We seek to embrace all dairy-digesting abilities here at Cheese Prep.”   132

The student, mild Brie Gruyere, was not bitter. “I plan to transfer because I can reach for the sky at Pizza Pie High,” she said, “but Cheese will always be tops.”   133
Me, to high school French class: Oh my gosh, quit complaining!
Girl: We’re teenagers. It’s all that we do.
Boy: It’s hormonal! We can’t help it, am I right?


Monday, May 18, 2015

Succinctly Yours Week 217: Cat Bytes

It’s time again for Succinctly Yours, a micro meme hosted by the delightful Grandma of Grandma’s Goulash. Each week, Grandma posts a photo so that we might compose a story of 140 words or 140 characters or fewer to go with it. The bonus word this week was “berate.”



Gwen was inclined to berate herself for her poor typing skills. She felt like she was all paws.  80



No one could berate Gwen for scratching out a living on her computer. She was determined to claw her way to the top.  94



Gwen felt the need to berate her human for failing to post her antics on the internet. She so wanted to be the new star of MewTube.   105
The purpose of art is not a rarefied, intellectual distillate—it is life, intensified, brilliant life. ~Alain Arias-Misson

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Succinctly Yours Week 216: Dancing with the Babies

It’s time again for Succinctly Yours, a delightful micro meme hosted by the lovely Grandma of Grandma’s Goulash. Each week, Grandma thoughtfully serves up a photo so that we may gracefully execute a story of 140 words or 140 characters or fewer to go with it. The bonus word this week was “graduate.”
The young ladies of Miss Deb’s Academy were not allowed to graduate until they could stop fidgeting with their dresses. Some skirted the issue longer than others.  136

Some of the would-be graduates were happy to see Harold had enrolled. He was on the youthful side, but they all needed a cotillion partner.  115
I wanted to dance anyway, even with a limp. ~ Anne Lamott, Plan B Further Thoughts on Faith

Sunday, May 10, 2015

The Delightful Layers of Momdom

Many thanks to Sioux for making me think of a memory. I read her wonderful Mother’s Day post while eating my grandmother’s soup out of a bowl I bought because it reminded me of my grandmother’s dishes.

Those dishes really captured her because we usually sat at her kitchen table. My grandmother was the kind of woman who was always doing for others. That is how I remember her—bustling. Cooking, tidying, moving. Always moving.

And then advanced age forced her to sit still. Forced others to do for her for once. It was hard for her, I’m sure, but that, too, she handled with grace. Even though it would be easy to say she’d earned the right to be waited on, I never got the impression that sitting still was any kind of reward for her.

Instead, the reward was mine. My grandmother had a live-in caregiver then, but when the caregiver was off on Sundays, my grandmother needed someone to sit with her. I lived out of town at the time, but when I came to visit, I’d sit with her on Sundays.

That was how I got to know my grandmother—really got to know her—after she’d turned 100 years old.

Because for the first time ever, we really talked. Not only did I get to ask her what she needed, I got to know her as a human being and not merely as a caretaker. I was surprised to learn just how smart and funny and wise she truly was. We chatted and conversed and giggled and gossiped a little. We reminisced. We debated and discussed. And when she did pass at 102, I felt those last two years had been the most precious. For me, anyway.

Here’s hoping you, too, have good memories or make good memories that last through the centuries and beyond. Happy Mother’s Day.


Who else but a grandmother ever fried bologna?  ~Cynthia Kaplan, Leave the Building Quickly





Sunday, May 3, 2015

Succinctly Yours Week 215: Gone Fishin’ With Dwayne


It’s time again for Succinctly Yours, a micro meme cast forth by the delightful Grandma’s Goulash. Each week, Grandma thoughtfully dangles a photo in front of us to capture our imaginations so we can cook up a story of 140 words or 140 characters or fewer to go with it. The bonus word this week was “accentuate.”

The new fly-fishing equipment Pa thought would be perfect only served to accentuate Dwayne’s shortcomings. He fished all day long and didn’t catch a single fly.  135

Dwayne had heard you could catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but he knew that was stupid. How would they get the vinegar on the hook, anyway?  126

Dwayne tried to popularize the sport of alfalfa fishing, but it never caught on. The alfalfa, that is—it wouldn’t catch on the hook.   110 

Squidward: Do you have to stand so close? You’re making me claustrophobic!
Patrick: What does claustrophobic mean?
Spongebob: I think it means he’s afraid of Santa Claus.
Patrick: Ho ho ho!
Spongebob: Stop it, Patrick! You’re scaring him!
~Spongebob Squarepants