Rules of the Roadtrip

While traversing the vast regions of the USA on a month long roadtrip in the 70s, my parents had a lot of rules of the road.  You can only eat at McDonald’s, Howard Johnson’s or Burger King. My mom believed big corporations and franchises were always reliable. She had no interest in local flavor.  WeContinue reading “Rules of the Roadtrip”

Labor Day

Every Labor Day, I can’t help thinking of the best and worst 24 hours of my life. The day my sweet angel was born and the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.  My baby was scheduled to be born August 1, but the baby didn’t get the memo. Every week in August, I went to theContinue reading “Labor Day”

Song Sung Blue

Brandy was enthused at her first visit to the renaissance fair with her longtime boyfriend Dale. She embraced the merriment by meticulously making period wench and farmer costumes for them. But Brandy was especially excited for another reason. After 10 years together she wondered if Dale was ready to take their relationship to the nextContinue reading “Song Sung Blue”

Accidents Happen

It was an accident. A spectacular accident, but an accident nonetheless. I’m an artist. Graduating from a very prestigious art school, for years, I diligently worked on paintings for the important gallery opening I always saw in my future. But to pay the bills I painted commissioned art for commercial billboards to sell various productsContinue reading “Accidents Happen”

Spring Fling

It’s Spring gala season, when a young woman’s fancy turns to love. Each season young women of the New York Society elite are debuted for young men to meet, court, and marry. Each ball had a mist of romance hanging in the air. For the Viscountess Caroline, this ball season held the spark of anContinue reading “Spring Fling”

Work To Live

Work was frantic in Stephanie’s real estate office. On one line she was talking a buyer with cold feet off the edge while on the other lines she had an attorney and another agent on the phone about problems with other pending deals. And in front of her, an assistant holding bunches of files tryingContinue reading “Work To Live”

You’ll Never Know

It’s a busy night. The Stage Door Canteen is packed with sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen from nearby training bases. And in a big city like New York, there are an ample supply of young women, called junior hostesses, who are there to talk to and dance with the servicemen. The USO service offered youngContinue reading “You’ll Never Know”

Innocent?

Rachel felt as though she were living in a sinkhole of absurdity, delving deeper and deeper into the ridiculous with every passing day. The problem was her husband Hal, but really what he morphed into… a giant ogre of idiosyncratic annoyance.Trapped somewhere between the twilight zone and the worst fraternity house on campus, she wasContinue reading “Innocent?”

White Picket Fence

Sandy was tired of her world. Drudging to the overworked menial office job she hated left her little time for a life. And more and more her friends peeled off after getting married and having kids, leaving her alone on her hellish daily treadmill.  The nightmare of dating became an endless game of Duck, Duck, Goose. She’d meet someone at work, in lineContinue reading “White Picket Fence”

Unhappily Ever After

You may be familiar with my story. I was a poor orphan forced into servitude, and then, with a twist of fate, fell in love with a prince to live happily ever after. That was the real story. The authors embellished it with fanciful inventions of fairy godmothers and pumpkins turning into carriages. That wasContinue reading “Unhappily Ever After”