The Hellish Handbasket

I read today that writing gratitude lists sometimes can make us feel worse rather than better. I find that news a great relief. Now I don...

Bill rides a bike around the trailer park in the evening and we occasionally cross paths as I'm out walking my route. A few nights ago, ...

Maybe my throbbing right inner ear knew that I meant business when I made a doctor's appointment. Maybe my ear decided to cooperate, kno...

It's the end of the year again, time to get maudlin over mistakes made and opportunities missed. All those wasted moments spent networki...

I honored one of my relatively recent holiday traditions last week: I celebrated Buy Nothing Day on Black Friday. I'm happy to let the h...

My scrawny 85-year-old mother called me a few minutes ago. “Have you ever had a worse Thanksgiving meal?” she asked. I had just finished adm...

No complaints from rainbow city. I'll take our unsettled rain squalls and sun breaks over 6-foot snow drifts any day. On the hierarchy o...

I launched the Hellish Handbasket Blog in January of 2012 as I was headed into one of my many recurring dark nights of my soul: my intermina...

It seems like every time I write about an event I attended, I start with “I survived the...” Is that odd? Do you do that? No, probably not. ...

Today I enjoyed my privileged American life. Today, under amazing blue skies, my family motored to a restaurant and exercised our god-give...

I've been avoiding this moment for six months. This week I was broadsided with an unpleasant realization: No, it can't be! Can it be...

The umpteenth time I checked the course room today, there was a message from my Chair: “Unexpectedly out of office. Back Monday.” After a st...

I don't consider myself a Christian. That means I am not inclined to be cheery during the Christmas season. In fact I can hardly stand...

Hi, how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was awesome, thanks for asking. As you might expect, I am not a big fan of the holiday season. It's ...

While I wait for my dissertation chairperson to review the umpteenth draft of my concept paper, I have some time to reflect once again on ...

While I'm avoiding writing my literature review, I have the time to obsess about other things. I'm feeling somewhat fragile. The bes...

During the late 1990s and early 2000s I was enamored with self-help books targeted at creative people who were having trouble expressing the...