For the first time in months, I dragged the Extrovert Chair into the front yard today, and in less than a minute, I was in tears. I guess I’m out of shape. Oscar is a SUPER-friendly man from the Philippines. He gets around on a beat-up bike, and almost always wears flip-flops. He does handy-personContinue reading “Winter Bells”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Extrovert Chair Hits the Road: Back-to-School Edition
Twenty-nine years ago, a student teacher was placed with me. She was skilled in working with curriculum, and my fourth-graders liked her. But one day, she confessed that teaching was much more difficult than she’d realized. “I’m an introvert,” she said. “I’m comfortable engaging with one person at a time, but performing in front ofContinue reading “Extrovert Chair Hits the Road: Back-to-School Edition”
Party Edition
Within the first few weeks of sitting in The Extrovert Chair, I was invited to two parties. One of the parties is a weekly event, and last Friday, I finally decided to go. That day was a particularly fitting one for attending a party of strangers. It was my father’s birthday, and Dad was theContinue reading “Party Edition”
Ana
She found me on Facebook a year ago, this 24-year-old former student of mine. Recently, Ana offered to loan me The Center Cannot Hold (a memoir that the author describes as her “journey through madness”), and I wanted to lend her Children of the Land (a memoir of growing up undocumented). So we met upContinue reading “Ana”
Moments
My husband, John, had a new chainsaw delivered today. When he brought the box inside, he leaned it in the corner of the living room and said, “I’ll put it here for now.” And I said, “But that will make the living room look messy!” The chainsaw is the tall skinny white box in theContinue reading “Moments”
Jose and Oso
As soon as Shelter-In-Place started, I understood: I needed to experience the world as bigger than what was contained inside the walls of my house. So I started sitting outside. The day it occurred to me that I could plunk an empty extra chair 8 feet away from where I sat on the front lawn,Continue reading “Jose and Oso”
