run on sentences

Most of the time, I end up thinking of snappy, clever responses after the fact instead of when I really need them.  Once in a while, though, I come up with something on the spur of the moment that surprises me in it's originality, wittiness, and ability to really leave people speechless for a moment.  Until they laugh. My favorite such moment of extreme clarity and wittiness took place in Chicago back in the early 90's.  I spent many weekends going there as a member of a national committee that was creating a pediatric emergency nursing course.  It was hard work, but a lot of fun and in the end, really made a big difference in pediatric emergency nursing care.  But that isn't what this is about. During one of our first meetings, we went out to eat, using our per diem money that we were given for such purposes.  We were a group of women from all over the country, all about the same age give or take a few years,  who were in the process of balancing our family life with w

When I was a kid, spring in my little town was not subtle.  You knew it was coming.  The snowbanks melted into dirty brown mud and you could walk to school without wearing boots.  The roads, for the first time in months were bare.  For fun, all of the kids in the town would go "jumping creeks".  We had a specific creek known as "shit creek (we pronounced it "crick") that we spent many evenings jumping over  and trying not to land in it.  It was called shit crick for a specific reason....it smelled like sewage and rumor had it that was where all of our toilet contents ended up.  Many a romance blossomed along with the springtime and many first dates involved "jumping shit crick".  The  spring air smelled so good that it was intoxicating.  When I was a kid though, I never realized how good the air smelled because I took it for granted.   When I moved to the smoggy Salt Lake Valley I really realized how lucky I was to grow up with such pure air.  Actua

A few weeks ago,  I ventured out into the world to mail a package and to do some wandering.  My favorite wandering places are discount stores, like Ross and T.J. Maxx.  Now that I am retired I can go to them frequently enough to find really good deals.  And on Tuesdays, Ross offers a 10% discount to people over 55 years old. Although I am over 55, I always secretly hope they will ask me how old I am, instead of just giving me the discount.  I refuse to believe I look a day over....54?   Anyway, I got two really nice toilet bowl brushes and holders to replace our old rusty looking ones.  They were a really good deal, especially with the discount added on. I was walking to my car and smiling at how good it made me feel to make these insignificant purchases.  I was also thinking how much I liked having a pink and a green bathroom - who cares if it is so sixties?  Someday it will be back in style. An older woman heading into the store to get her 10% discount, said to me "You are