I hope you go see The Hunger Games. But I hope you don’t have to see it in the company of dozens of 14-year old girls. At my theater, they was audible weeping (I mean, sobbing!) when a much loved character was killed, and there were screeches of delight every time someone “bad” was killed. That […]
A Day Off Means…? 
March 23, 2012 by
My days off are often challenging. All week, I long for some time to do “whatever I want.” And yet, when the day comes, “whatever I want” can be unsatisfying. The chores that I was longing to do during my workweek all of a sudden seem dull and well, like, chores. Sitting on the couch […]
Suburban Ugly 
March 23, 2012 by
My dad told me he thought my “Bolingbrook vista” photo was, well, pretty ugly. I tried to explain that I didn’t mean to suggest that it was an attractive vista – just a vista. But he’s right. It’s ugly. Suburban ugly isn’t as cool as urban ugly. Urban ugly at least has some street cred! […]
Back roads and silence
March 11, 2012 by
We drove out to Galena and back, yesterday and today. It’s a charming tourist town on the other side of the state. We belong to a meat CSA – we pay a subscription to a farm family and in return, every month we get a “share” of meats and eggs. We missed our delivery last […]
Bolingbrook vista, early spring
March 7, 2012 by
Layered, exurban landscape: vacant lot, cornfield, warehouses, sky.
Little suburb on the prairie
March 1, 2012 by
I’m often surprised by how pretty it can be around here. Suburbs? Pretty? Those two words usually don’t go together. When the search committee at the church asked what it would be like for a city girl like me to move to the suburbs – especially way out here in the hinterlands – I could […]
Ash Wednesday Diary
February 23, 2012 by
8:00 a.m. Stop at church to pick up ashes, bread, wine, and the communion kit. 9:00 a.m Visit R.H., who doesn’t leave home much, and her home care aid, M., in Naperville. We talk about the pictures on her walls, mostly painted or drawn by relatives, now long dead. We share ashes and communion. […]
Home is the most important place
February 11, 2012 by
Bolingbrook is a community of stores and homes. There’s no town center, no special landmarks, and no remarkable geography. (Although, to be fair, there are a few small, muddy rivers and some cornfields). For most of us, the landscape of life is what’s inside our houses and inside the stores nearby. “Home is the most important […]
