A Slippery Slope

One might think that one could safely stand on a rickety stool and reach an item on a high shelf. One may even think that this could be accomplished without mishap.

But no, not necessarily. One can slip off the stool, backwards, and one can strike one’s head against the corner of a bed frame. And such an event could befall one when one is completely alone in the house.

This could happen. This did happen.

The Theory of Relativity

I sat in the sterile waiting room, clutching an unopened issue of Popular Mechanics, dread seeping in from all sides. And when the technician approached with his obligatory dingy clipboard, I knew my worst fears had been realized.

"Your vehicle failed the smog," he said, dispassionate enough to border on indifference.

This had never actually happened to me, and I stared at him blankly for a minute, trying to process exactly what he might mean by that.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Almost every Sunday, I sit in the 4th pew from the altar at the 1:15 Spanish mass. It's not an ideal spot, since the vent for the air conditioner is perched directly above us, leaving us stunted with cold, and shafts of sunlight pierce the slanted windowpanes at a cruel angle. But that's where my mother insists that we sit. She wants to get a good seat, like it's a production of Hamilton.

The Reckless Ones

I’d never seen water quite that shade of clear-sky blue, and I’d never seen men quite as shifty as the two that stood in front of us on the beach in Negril, Jamaica. One man wore a UC Berkeley t-shirt and the other wore a faded fedora.

Temporary Roommates

The most concerning moment came when we thought the car had been stolen.

The children were home from college for winter break. Of course, we were happy to see them, needless to say. It’s just that they are no longer children, and I started noticing some, well, irregularities in our otherwise carefully ordered lives.

Life 101

Recently, I went to mass at the Newman Center, here in Sacramento, and afterward, when I would normally walk to my car, I found myself walking across the street onto the grounds of Sacramento State University.

As I wandered past the same trees that had grown in the same spots when I was 20 years old, I stopped to consider them with my almost 50-year-old eyes.

Wall Colors

Recently, my mother-in-law came for a visit. Both of my kids are away at college and don’t live at home, and yet I did not have a “guest room” to offer my guest.