Whenever I iron an item of clothing, which is exactly and only when I feel like it, I think about Cookie. No, not cookies. I think of a girl from my high school class who was nicknamed Cookie and who became a homecoming princess in our senior year. One time before class started, I was […]
Author: Evelyn J. Willburn
I know you are, but what am I?
I am keenly aware of my own demographic, especially when traveling. As an upper-middle-aged white woman, I ride the razor’s edge, teetering on the verge of Karen-hood, every time I leave the house. However, I have decided that throwing a fit in public is an acceptable activity, provided you are acting on behalf of someone […]
Flies coast to coast
The houseflies in Southeast Alaska are, like their cousins the world over, unpardonably rude, but at least they have the wherewithal to stay airborne. Conversely, the houseflies in rural Virginia are too lazy even for that scrap of decorum: they land on you whenever you hold still for even a moment. I know that all […]
Zip sliding away
I didn’t know that ziplining was on my bucket list until I tried it the other day at the Richmond Metro Zoo. My sister Laura was the instigator, inviting me to join her in researching the experience prior to bringing her grandchildren. We were about half an hour in before I was able to conclude […]
Of credit cards and first-world problems
Recently, while preparing to embark on a trip to another state, I encountered a snag in the form of evident fraud on my credit card. This was some next-level stuff, appearing as charges to a vendor that I sometimes use. There were four of these charges, and for a while I just wracked my brain. […]
The great watermelon caper
My sister Mary retired recently. Cue the language-nerd digression: “retire” has no common ancestor with “tired”; rather, it means to “pull back from.” So retired people are not necessarily exhausted. The Spanish word for retirement is “jubilar,” which shares a cognate with the English word “jubilation.” Thus, we can say that Mary has pulled back […]
Fifty shades of fall
When I was a teenager in the 1970’s, I worked summers at the Triple A travel agency in Richmond, Virginia. I was reminded of this experience by a recent conversation regarding fall foliage. In my day, long before the advent of the internet, before Google Maps Lady was even a glint in a rich man’s […]
The razor’s edge
It is 10:01 a.m. I am sitting on the steps of this bush Alaska teacher apartment, waiting for my ride to the airport. The plane, at last report, is due to land at 10:10. I have already called the local airline agent twice today. The first time it went to voice mail. The second time, […]
A lady always knows when to leave
Or so I’ve heard. Friday was my last day of subbing in this small town. The regular teacher is back, smiling and restored to health, and I helped her move some of the classroom furnishings into the positions that she prefers to have them. Later she worried that she had offended me, and I did […]
Bush mail, part the second
It has been four days since I ran out of peanut butter. Never mind that I have eggs, cheese, and canned salmon. It is peanut butter that I want now. The cargo plane is, at last report, due at ten minutes to six. At twelve minutes to six, I jump into the school truck (not […]