Archive - March 2021

One of the things I love best about having a birthday in early March is that I can always count on feeling the stirrings of Spring as a gift from Nature.

Full disclosure: I’m Canadian, and I loathe winter.  (I know; I’m not sure if they’ll take back my citizenship for that or not either.)  But by the time my birthday rolls around, life on the 45th parallel is definitely getting brighter.

These tulips were given to me yesterday by my husband, and I absolutely love them.  I buried my nose in the purple bliss and took a deep breath.  The damp, earthy smell filled my nose and swept deep into my lungs, and something in me came out of dormancy.

I remember spring.

As I sit here writing at my desk, the sun is pouring in the window.  The sky still looks cold, and the snow still covers most of the ground, but winter’s days are numbered.

13 days and 18 hours, if you’re counting.

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This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ March Slice of Life Challenge.

You can view other writers’ Day 6 contributions via the comments here.

Today was my 51st birthday, and it was a lovely day.  It was not a “prime birthday” (because 17 times 3 is 51), but it was pretty fine just the same.  So fine, in fact, that I’m getting this post written with less than 30 minutes to midnight.

My day began with an online writing session with a dozen or so teacher-writers writing with me.  Lunchtime saw me with my besties having fried clams while sitting in Steph’s SUV.

Today, I was showered with gifts, flowers, cake, and so many good wishes on Facebook that I could barely keep up.  I was blessed with phone calls that made me smile all the way down to a molecular level.

My generous friends also helped me surpass my birthday fundraising goal of $250 CDN for The Walden Woods Project, a nonprofit near and dear to my heart.  (Psst!  Teachers: You will find free Thoreau-related resources here.)

Now I am laying in bed, tired but happy.  I feel somewhat spoiled and very loved.

This will not be the most brilliant post I’ll publish during this month-long challenge, but it may well be the most contented.

See you tomorrow — which starts for me in 11 minutes.

Goodnight!

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This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ March Slice of Life Challenge.

You can view other writers’ Day 5 contributions via the comments here.

 

One ring.  Two rings.  Then someone picked up.

”Hi,” I said.  Even I could hear the hesitation in that single syllable.  “I’m not sure how we do this now.  It’s been a long time.”

The voice on the phone was soothing.  “Tell me what you need, and I’ll see what I can do to help.”

”Well, it’s been more than a year,” I said, “so it’ll be my first time since …”

”i understand.”

After listening to a run-through of the process, I was given an appointment time forty minutes into the future.  Best to get it taken care of sooner rather than later.

When I arrived, a couple of other clients were there, both reading questions and filling  in the blanks on forms trapped by dollar-store clipboards.  The young woman behind the counter passed me my own clipboard and a pen.  “Let’s get started with this.”

I did as instructed, answered a few more questions verbally, had my temperature taken, and then followed her through the reception area and into the back room.

”You can put your coat there,” she said, gesturing to a chair.  “You said you wanted shampoo, right?”

My first haircut in over a year.  Seven inches lopped off, in easily the oddest salon experience of my life.

This is my last day being 50.  I wonder if 51 will be just as strange.

 

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This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ March Slice of Life Challenge.

You can view other writers’ Day 4 contributions via the comments here.