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Happy 40th!
Prompted By Surprise!
/ Stories
Dan didn’t like surprise parties. He didn’t want one for his 30th, so a bunch of his work buddies convinced me to hire a belly dancer to come to the office for his 32nd. He still hasn’t forgiven me. As his 40th approached, our lives had changed. We had two young children, I no longer…
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Bully in Chief
Prompted By Bullying
/ Stories
What happened to Melania’s anti-bullying campaign? Perhaps her husband bullied her into shelving it. He seems to have the market cornered as the biggest bully in the country right now. He certainly has the loudest megaphone. A friend told me that he read a story written by an elementary school classmate of the Orange One’s.…
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What is TOO Old?
Prompted By Ageism
/ Stories
Trump, Warren, Biden and Sanders are all in their 70s. Bernie just had a heart attack but “feels fine”. My father did too after his first one, until the big one came that killed him at age 76. Jimmy Carter, still swinging a hammer for Habitat for Humanity while battling cancer, aged 95, says they…
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Treasure Room
Prompted By Libraries
/ Stories
David took a job with Google DeepMind and moved to London in January, 2015. Google put him up in a two bedroom apartment for two months while he looked for a place of his own. Not wanting to let the second bedroom go a-begging, we went to visit the next month. It had been a…
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First Sale
Prompted By The First Time
/ Stories
I joined Advanced Systems, Inc. in mid-April, 1978. It began with a two week training program in Elk Grove Village, IL, where the company was headquartered. I sold follow-on contracts for video training and ancillary products to the data processing industry to existing clients (this was so long ago, it wasn’t called IT yet). Some…
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Jill-Sharon
Prompted By Nannies and Babysitters
/ Stories
I stayed home after David was born for 18 months. We had moved twice and were now in our “forever” house. In fact, 33 years later, we still live there. Two months after moving in, we began extensive renovations and I began to think it was time to go back to work. I had been…
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Help! My Wallet was Stolen in Spain!
Prompted By Hacks and Scams
/ Stories
I awoke to a distressing email from my beloved mentor, former Rose Director, Carl Belz. It said something to the effect: “I left quickly for Spain and today my pocket was picked. I have no money. Could you please wire some money to…such and such a number”. The email was sent to a large number…
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Sorry!
Prompted By Games People Play
/ Stories
When we were little, my brother and I loved to play Sorry! by the hour. We’d set up the board on the carpeted floor in our living room in Detroit and hop the pieces around the board, squealing with delight if we could send the other’s pieces back to the start, yelling at each other,…
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Chicago Stories
Prompted By Road Rage
/ Stories
I have never personally experienced road rage. I tend to steer clear of drivers who seem to be in too much of a hurry, or are weaving in and out of traffic. I give them wide berth and get away as quickly as I can. Therefore, I will tell two stories from friends during my…
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Global Weirding
Prompted By Weather
/ Stories
The sky was dark when I came out of Pilates at 11:30am on Tuesday, July 22. Two of the young women who work at the club were standing outside, looking at the sky with dread. “What’s up?” “There’s a tornado warning for Vineyard Haven”. “Oh dear, I had planned to go there to grocery shop.…
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