I was in Hopkins last week getting some service done on my car. The dealership where I bought the car and where I used to get my service work done went out of business not long ago, so I only recently started going to the place in Hopkins. Whenever I take my car in for service, I usually pack enough work to do – reading, writing, and whatever I can fit into a tote bag – and just wait there while the work is being [...]
Note: For ten weeks, I am using the Dream Coaching® program to work on my dream of finishing and publishing a book about my trip to Uganda, and I am reporting on my progress in my weekly column. As always, my column is posted on my blog every Friday. To read the series from the beginning, start with the introductory post, dated May 3, 2013. The third session of the Dream Coaching program is the one in which people’s hidden traits and talents really start [...]
It’s kind of ironic. We’re finally past all the end-of-the-world predictions and fears that had to do with the Mayan calendar, and now we’re hit with this flu epidemic. I haven’t heard any predictions that the flu is going to wipe out civilization as we know it, but I’ve read enough novels and watched enough disaster movies – where a medical research project goes awry, or a virulent strain of something-or-other gets out into the general public – that I’ve at least considered a “What [...]
“Quiet on the set!” Yes, they really do say that. At least, they did last Sunday when I was in St. Paul for a taping of the show, “It’s a Woman’s World” for SPNN – the St. Paul Neighborhood Network. But they – meaning the producer of the show – said it just once, when two of the people in the room were having a whispered conversation on the side and didn’t realize that an individual recording of one of the show’s participants was about [...]
You don’t say Happy Birthday to others when it’s your birthday. You wish them a Happy Birthday when the birthday is theirs. And you don’t tell someone Happy Anniversary on the date of your own wedding anniversary, unless the person you’re saying it to happens to be your spouse. I bring this up with the hope of diffusing what I see as a dangerous and ugly holiday tradition. And we’ve had plenty of those over the years. The most recent one is the alarming Black [...]
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 28, 2011. My husband and I went up north last weekend. Except we had to drive south to get there. We spent the weekend with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who live in the Chicago area but recently bought a cabin at Fox Lake, which is about a two-hour drive north from their house. From ours, it’s a six-hour drive in the other direction. It was a great weekend, and other than the time we spent riding out the storms....
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on July 7, 2011. It’s no secret to anyone who knows me personally – or to regular readers of my column or other writings – that two of the things I’m most passionate about are Toastmasters and Dream Coaching. And as naïve and idealistic as this may sound, I truly believe that the world would be a much better place if every person in it spent some time taking part in Toastmasters meetings and working with a Dream Coach....
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on May 19, 2011. It’s doubtful that anyone would ever mistake me for a sports star or a rock star. But I was treated like both last weekend. And I enjoyed how it felt. It was at the Eastern Carver County Relay for Life, where I was one of the speakers at the Opening Ceremony, and a participant in the event. But it wasn’t for either of these roles that I was given the star treatment. It was in my role as a cancer survivor...
The column "Find Your Buried Treasure" appears weekly in the Chanhassen (MN) Villager. This column was published on February 3, 2011. My husband and I flew to Chicago last weekend. It was the first time I’ve been on a plane since full body scanners were installed at the airport and the controversy began over the pat-down of passengers who refused to go through full-body scans. A number of people have complained – and even initiated lawsuits – over the pat-downs they describe as an aggressive and humiliating violation of their rights and their privacy. For several years now, I’ve had to go through the full pat-down every time I travel by air. Not because of any issues over a full-body scan, but because I’ve had a pacemaker implanted due to heart damage caused by chemotherapy years ago...