• Evil Knievel July 4 2001 1
    Childhood Memories,  Favorite Things

    Telling Our Stories

    One of the things I have always loved about getting together with my parents is the storytelling. There are certain stories in our family (and probably yours too) that get told and retold. Favorite stories for us include the one about how my dad stuck a fork in his older sister’s butt cheek, how my Grandma casually came out to the living room where my Grandpa and my Dad were talking and said sweetly, “Danny, the kitchen is on fire…”, how my sister nailed me in the head with a wooden Fisher-Price clock on a road trip to Canada…those are just the tip of the iceberg. Dylan, Jason, and Hannah…

  • Childhood Memories

    I’m Big On Nostalgia, Part Two

    Yesterday I wrote about how I truly adore being whisked back to other parts of my life via nostalgic reminders. Music and food are especially strong instigators of time travel for me. My sister gave me a great gift for my birthday: a bag full of my favorite German treats. I’ve written many times about how Germany has a special place in my heart, and when i opened that bag I was so excited. When I was fourteen years old I spent a month in Germany. I lived with a fourteen-year-old German girl named Tina, and her family. They helped me integrate into daily life there, and for thirty days…

  • 8D2F4924 832B 4839 80ED 0B156C70DC16 e1510181050125 1
    Childhood Memories

    I’m Big On Nostalgia, Part One

    On a recent Sunday morning I attended a car “show” at our local mall. The parking lot was full of cars: classic cars, show cars, novelty cars, and even some cars that probably should have been crushed and sold for scrap metal by now but for some odd reason their owners are so attached that they thought everyone should see their precious vehicles. That reason was probably Nostalgia, and I get it totally. I am a sucker for items and pictures and songs and foods that can instantly transport me to other times in my life. It’s not that I am unhappy NOW, of course. There’s just something about looking…

  • Childhood Memories,  Confessions,  Fun in Knoxville

    Home is Where the Heart is.

    One of the scariest things about moving away from a long-time home is the idea of starting over again, from scratch. Finding the nearest grocery stores and other preferred shops, setting up new doctors and a dentist, figuring out if the area where you think you want to purchase a home is actually the area in which you think you’ll be happy long-term, and so many other details can be completely overwhelming. Multiply that frustration by three or four times if your long-time home also happens to be the city where you’re from originally and then multiply that by ten times if you’re a control freak who hates change. I…

  • Childhood Memories,  Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    There Are Worse Things To Obsess Over.

    I have an odd obsession: toilet paper. My preoccupation doesn’t have anything to do with a particular type of toilet paper or even having a firm stance on whether it should roll over or under. I’m obsessed with having enough in the house. Weird, I know. I have worried about it for as long as I can remember, and I was never able to figure out why until I came up with a theory a while back. More on that in a minute. I get extremely nervous when the stash in the house goes down to single digits: heart palpitations and all. What if someone has a bathroom crisis and…