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Mid-Life Musings
A couple of years ago, I was at the hair salon explaining to my 20-something-year-old stylist why we were moving from Colorado all the way to Alaska. It was a question I got a lot, and I gave her my usual, rehearsed answer. “We think Alaska will be an adventure,” I said, “it’s just a…
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Life on the Outskirts
“The Hunt” Act I: “It’s not at the restaurant,” my husband Mark says, starting to panic. He had used my cell to inquire about his own, which he thought he must have left at the restaurant where we had dinner an hour earlier. “And you checked the couch?” I ask, because 9 times out of…
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Can Cat People Become Dog People?
The Safeway cashier has stopped scanning my groceries. She stands staring just past my right shoulder at nothing. Her eyes are filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” I say. The cashier nods absently, but mostly she remains paralyzed by a memory that clearly weighs heavy on her. “She saved my life,” she tells me again,”I’ll never…
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How to Summer in Alaska
The other evening my husband Mark and I were on a peaceful stroll when we came across this we shoot to kill sign. A not so subtle warning to trespassers. I had just been thinking our walk was similar to our post-dinner walks in Boulder, where we came from. Mountain views, similar style homes and…
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Springtime is Break-Up Time
Things are thawing out here in Alaska. I’d say we are just a day or two away from being able to extract my son’s homework from the driveway, which is now three months past due. Spring, Alaska’s Ugly Season Spring here is referred to as, “The Break Up.” This is the time of year when ice…
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The New Kid
Week 1 at a New School: A Rocky Start My 13-year old son Anders had just started at his new middle school. I was there to pick him up on that first Friday of the school year, anxious to hear how week 1 went. “Mom, I made a ton of cool friends today!” my son…
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Hiding in Alaska with a Criminal Past
It is dark as night and 14 below zero on this winter morning in Alaska, and I’m driving my son to school. There are no streetlights on the highway we take into town, but this morning there is a huge full moon lighting the way. The moon hovers just above the tree line. A creeping…