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I ain't afraid of no ghosts. But I am afraid of everything else.

I no longer sleep with a light on. It's been years since I had to peek out of the shower curtain every 5 minutes looking for Norman Bates. I only check closets and under beds on those rare evenings I...

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But that's so much less interesting than my ghost theory.

When my mother started having what she called her "spells," I, of course, started to have them too. I've never been one to let a loved one suffer a medical condition on their own. When I first...

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When I Fall

I've been thinking a lot about fathers and daughters.It started when the kid tackled her dad last night as soon as he walked in the door from work. Before he could even put all of his stuff down, she...

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Santa, The Boogeyman, and a Shooter On the Grassy Knoll

When I was eighteen, I believed in a much more interesting world. Magic was real. Miracles happened. Aliens had crash-landed in the New Mexican desert and sometimes hovered their super-cool aircraft...

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A moment of sincere (mostly) gratefulness.

Every year, despite the fact that I hate Thanksgiving (not the idea, but the execution), I like to pause and list some things here that I am thankful for. Because I think it's important to do that more...

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A Very Boy George Christmas

The December of my fifth grade year was going to be full of awesome.After a year spent in the wilds of Knox County, we were finally back home in northern Kentucky where I could get good pizza and...

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Christmas Letter

Dear family, family I never see, family I see more than I'd like, friends, acquaintances, friends who used to be acquaintances, and acquaintances who used to be friends: I hope this letter finds you...

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Standing on the edge, contemplating the view

I almost wrote a post last Tuesday night about The Ledge.The Ledge isn't a physical place. But I go there from time to time, just the same. It's the brink I reach in my mind sometimes, when life...

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You never really understand a person until you fall down a few steps in her...

Another paper to file away in the "Why can't I just be like other women?" folder. This one says, "Suspected proximal bicep tear (partial)" and is my receipt for a little trip I took this week to an...

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Out of the Woods

I walk up the stairs to the familiar offices on the second floor. I visit this building twice a year on good years, more often in those years when I've felt a lump or a bump or had a scan come back...

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Glass Houses

One thing I shouldn't be surprised by, but am, is how very ugly people can be behind a veil of Internet anonymity. Click on the comments section of any major news story published online and you see...

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Well, it just all goes downhill from here, doesn't it?

I turn 40 today. Yes, yes, happy birthday to me and all that. I'll go home tonight and have some cake and open some gifts and be really and truly grateful I made it to this point in my life.And after...

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Well, that was unexpected.

Never, ever say to yourself, "This couldn't get much worse." Because it can. And it will. And Fate will dump a bag of flaming poo on your doorstep and laugh at your tears. Last week I found myself the...

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Ninjas In the Bedroom: Why Percocet Is, Actually, a Bad Thing

I'm back.In case you were wondering, shoulder surgery is made of suck. It's painful. It's inconvenient, due to the ever-present sling. And it's very, very humbling.Once you've been dressed and...

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Girly

It was a big weekend for the kid. In fact, after this weekend's various beautification rituals, it may not be appropriate to call her "the kid." She may have done gone and raised herself into "young...

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90 Degrees

I've been through some painful things in my 40 years:Childbirth. A bone marrow biopsy. A chemo drug that made my veins burn. Mantle-field radiation.  Being required to read A Connecticut Yankee In King...

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Two Years

Hi, Mom.I'll admit, I'm currently going through one of those phases where I'm pretty uncertain about where I stand on God/heaven/an afterlife/angels, so I don't know if these words will find you. And...

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Let me bring you a plate.

Food is love.I've often heard it said but never really experienced it until the outpouring of food-love I received in the weeks following my shoulder surgery. My friends and co-workers, knowing that...

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Reach for the stars

When I was eleven, I found nothing in my world nearly as beautiful as the full-color pictures of the Orion Nebula in the pages of Astronomy magazine.Always a nerdy girl who couldn't decide between the...

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The force is weak with this one.

There are certain things we wish for our children. Health. Enough intelligence, initiative, and ambition to place them on a solid-enough career path to allow them to eventually move out of our...

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Other Mothers

"I didn't know I had another mother.""Of course you do. Everyone does."--CoralineToday being Mother's Day, I will, of course, honor my mother. She was a good one, and I owe so much of who I am to her....

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Friends of the Family

For the first time in many years, I cried when someone pulled away from my house.When I was a kid, I cried every time we had house guests and they left. And every time we were house guests and we left....

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Through a glass. Darkly.

I'd like to start by saying...I'm fine. Or at least, I will be fine. Eventually.If you've been wondering where I've been, well...I've been wondering that, too. After a declaration in May that I was...

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This picture explains everything you need to know about my childhood.

In going through old photo albums looking for inspiration, I found this. I can't get tired of looking at it, you guys. Because, if you look closely, you can see my entire childhood.Clearly, I'm playing...

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Nobody Answers

Oh, the lonely sound of my voice callin'Is driving me insane.And just like rain the tears keep fallin'But nobody answers when I call your name...Vince Gil, "When I Call Your Name"A beautiful Kentucky...

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