The Hellish Handbasket

Sort of like the waves of tsunami debris piling up on Oregon beaches, the unpleasant realities of my life are piling up outside my mental do...

I've been covering a keyboarding class for a colleague who was out for the first two weeks of the term. On Monday she returned in high d...

Seeing my mother mending her bones in the rehab down the street is triggering my awareness that I spend a lot of my time believing in the ...

My normal state is to feel precariously perched on a thin edge, like a malcontented gargoyle glaring at the world. As I listen to the garden...

Finally, at the age of 55, I think I get it. This is it, this is my life; whether I like it or not, this is my life. It doesn't matter h...

Here's an academic quality question for you. Just in case you care. What happens if faculty define academic quality as critical thinking...

That is the conclusion I reached today as I trundled my way to Freddy's to replenish my empty fridge. Driving to the store is one of tho...

I had a 20-minute chat with my new dissertation chair this week, before all the end-of-term madness began. She actually called me . If there...

The term ended today at the career college. Last week was spent preparing finals, administering finals, and grading finals to the few studen...

Do I have the word sucker written on my forehead? I guess there's one born every minute, and I'm it. I fear my naturopath thinks I...

I edited six paragraphs of my literature review tonight and got stuck looking for a citation for one messy, murky statement I made in a mome...

Today I took time to take a trot in the park. A lovely spring day is not something to ignore around here, because we won't have one agai...

At the career college, the term is winding down. Two weeks to go. In my Professional Development class, we are immersed in the tense and exc...

I told myself I wouldn't interrupt my writing to update this blog, but I couldn't help myself. I was just swamped with an overwhelmi...

Writing is like herding cats. Pulling teeth. Drinking vinegar. I'm trying to write my literature review. Forty to eighty pages is the go...

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

After weeks of Internet connection trouble, the monolith known as Century Link, arrived on my doorstep today and commandeered my Internet li...

So says my friend and coach (who lives in Phoenix where it was 85 yesterday, so of course she would be full of optimism). Actually, she didn...

My mother recently told me what to do to have more friends. “To have friends, you have to be a friend!” she said, using a tone of voice I re...

I'm working on an outline of the literature review section of my dissertation proposal. The project is daunting in scope. I have to take...