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To quote another Brett (but I spell mine with one 'T'), "Yes, we drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. I liked beer. Still like beer." I've moved on from my '80s Old Style days with the rise of the craft beer/microbrewery scene around 2010. Back then, Three Floyds was, and remains, a 5-minute drive from my parent's house. When supply ran low, my dad was a willing interstate beer mule, delivering fresh Zombie Dust cases. As luck would have it, one of my 21 cousins in/ar...
"Our flight is delayed," announced the pilot - to the audible delight of my fellow passengers. My mom and I used mother-daughter mind-reading powers to acknowledge that we had a long night ahead. For those who don't know me, I am not what some people would call a happy flier. I am a superstitious one, a stressed one, a disorganized one, but never ever a happy one. I had college decisions coming out that night, heightening my desire to return home with my future looming in the...
Golf got started in the Scottish Highlands. Men would walk for hours - up and down, round and round. But one day, someone had the bright idea of knocking a tiny white ball ahead of him as he walked. That person, who shall remain anonymous to protect his life, started what we now call golf. A nice walk in stunning surroundings, apparently, was not enough for this masochist, he had to spoil it all by inventing, ugh, I can barely utter the word - golf! To this day, many pay homag...
I saw five robins in my front yard this morning. It’s almost time for baseball and the backstop at the Hinsdale Little League field in Peirce Park is being redone. Gabby AND Rachel are the next Bachelorettes and it’s March Madness. After two long years of COVID and now, with a war in Ukraine, it helps to find little things in our messy world that bring joy. I’m flattened by this post on social media. “Morning routine: 1. Wake up. 2. Check on Zelensky. 3. Coffee.” It’s surreal...
Incredibly, we will be celebrating my youngest child's 21st birthday in a couple of weeks. Now I know you're probably expecting another "I can't believe I'm that old" column, but instead I thought I would take this opportunity to impart some sage advice to my soon-to-be-legal daughter. It just might be good advice for all of us. Enjoy your first beer (insert "wink" emoji here). Maybe even two. But I'm telling you, it only goes downhill after that. I may or may not be speaking...
“The birds are always chirping. At least there’s that. Every morning when I step outside to get the newspaper, the birds are chirping. I can’t see them, but knowing they’re there gives me pause. I stand in my own silence, listening. Sometimes it’s just a moment, other days it seems I need more, so I lean against the porch railing and breathe deeply for as long as it takes, to clear my mind and find gratitude. At least in this moment, alone in my robe on my front porch, th...
If you are anything like me - a parent who spends countless hours in the car because your kids have a more robust social calendar than you do - your driving playlist has been one thing and one thing only as of late: the "Encanto" soundtrack. Hard to believe, but even after hearing it on repeat for the last month-plus, I still love it. When the tunes aren't streaming through our car speakers or the Echo, it's blaring from the television. My college roommate and I regularly exch...
For no reason in particular, my son and I have an out-of-town hockey tournament tradition of streaming classic country on our way to games. Hopefully I've passed the torch in keeping alive one of my favorite musical genres to the next generation. Most country artists who were popular from the '40s through the '70s have long passed (Willie and Loretta are the remaining icons), but the music lives on forever. This is American music to the core with very little exposure these day...
When I was young, my mom gifted me a beautiful red traditional Chinese dress, called a qipao. Qipaos are of Manchu origin and are typically slim-fitting with a high neckline and have intricate designs woven in. I wore mine everywhere: to formal dinners, holiday gatherings, other special occasions, and I even threw it on to strut down our long hallway (starting the trend of borrowing my mom's clothes from a young age). My dramatic walks down the runway were a weekly...
I consider myself an enforcer of the oft-neglected and seriously misunderstood apostrophe. After 15 years of teaching in college, I can tell you for sure its days are numbered. Few students can write beyond texting and that, of course, is a language all its own. The little old apostrophe just gets no respect. My students consider its placement to be strictly optional and a serious impediment to their creativity. "A little dot with a tail. What's the big deal, huh, professor?"...
I read a weekly email called “3-2-1” Thursdays” by James Clear, the author of “Atomic Habits.” And I usually agree with his personal writings and the poems and literature he shares, under a focused theme, from other authors. However, one week in late 2021, I disagreed with what he wrote on the topic of resilience and growth. “Growth demands a temporary surrender of security,” he wrote. “It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships t...
A college friend of mine is going to be a first-time grandparent soon and wants to suggest baby names. Names. Funny thing about names ... I have a group of friends, and, coincidentally, we're all redheads. Back in the day, we dubbed ourselves the Redhead Club. (Sorry, Gen Zers, we weren't Gingers. This was the 1990s.) We'd call club meetings as a reason to dine out, drink wine and share girl talk. After going out, we'd convene in the third-floor apartment on West Cornelia in...
Some things, they don't warn you about. Others, even things you'd rather not know, are shared in abundant detail - labor and delivery experiences, kids' test scores, social gaffes. All stories told parent-to-parent about raising kids. To be fair, I am grateful for the stories, most of which can be boiled down to a central nugget of meaningful advice. Girlfriends and strangers alike have shared knowledge that is worth more than any information from Dr. Oz, Oprah or podcasters...
As I write this article, I'm in the throes of "the most wonderful time of the year." My kitchen island is littered with barely-legible to-do lists, package deliveries are coming in so fast and furious Vin Diesel would blush and my browser has so many open tabs that I fear my laptop is about to overheat. The same goes for my brain: Ho-ho-holy crap, there's still so much to do. When I was younger, I didn't truly understand what went into making the holidays special. Write a...
Your cares will disappear When you hear Hallelujah St. Nicholas is here When it’s Christmas time In New Orleans In a column last March, I summarized my travelogue recollections from prior visits to the city not for spectators, but for participants. Taking advantage of my college freshman’s holiday break, I joined Maya a few weeks ago in an easy pursuit of “bon temps” in New Orleans. Day 1 we started in the Bywater District with an outdoor table at Alma Café. Waiting on lunch...
Every holiday season I am thankful I am able to cozy up around the fire with family and friends and rewatch the holiday classics. Images of Clark Griswold hanging lights, the Kranks getting a tan at the mall and Buddy the Elf eating syrup drenched spaghetti dance through my head like sugar plums of yesteryear. In the midst of those visions, one movie stands above the rest: “It’s A Wonderful Life.” With all of the colorful wannabes and the passage of time, it is easy to forget how wonderful this movie is and the message it ca...
I smile more to gain ... less. As cheesy as it may sound, I have just started smiling more. (To be honest, my life is pretty great right now). I smile when I wake up early in the morning, when I see the sun rising, when I am preparing dinner, when I am spending time with people I love. I smile when I walk to my car and take in a view of the sky, albeit knowing I will be driving my kids around for the next three hours to activities. However, I can take this time to talk with th...
On our National Day of Thanks, I would like to send out a special message of appreciation to the woman who managed to not kill me when I was out for a run a couple weeks ago. When you didn't have your turn signal on, I assumed you actually weren't turning your car. Silly me! Honestly, after decades of jogging and biking through our fine town, I should have known better. For some inexplicable reason, certain people just refuse to flip that little lever on the steering wheel....
Today, I thought I'd tap into my intellectual grandiosity to present a philosophical theory. A question of id vs. ego, thought vs soul, good vs evil. Or maybe, if I could entice you to go deeper into the discussion: Phoebe vs Joey. In an episode of the TV series, "Friends," Joey states that true altruism doesn't exist, because in doing something nice for another person, the benefactor himself gets positive feedback or psychological warm fuzzies for doing so. Any act of...
Word nerd. Grammar geek. Vocabulary vigilante. Take your pick. They've all applied to me since, well, forever. As a toddler, my parents regularly found me cuddling Golden Books instead of stuffed animals when they peeked into my room at night. "Reading Rainbow" was must-see TV and had me begging for a library visit as soon as the credits rolled. I have a particularly vivid recollection of filling a sketchpad with hot neon scribbles (hey, it was the '80s!) and claiming I was wr...
I write to thank Hinsdale Falcon Football & Cheer and “Falcons Nation” for a wonderful fundraising celebration this past Friday night. A special thank you to event organizers and benefactors Nadine and Bill O’Malley, Kay and Mike Sharples, Tracy and Craig Zoberis, and Stephanie and Jim Hamman. Their efforts, and the generosity of nearly 200 Falcons families and supporters, have put this outstanding 100 percent volunteer organization in a position to succeed and thrive well into the future, extending more than 50 years of pr...
It's that time of year for seniors - college application season. College applications are many things, one of which is not easy. Speaking from experience, they're a bit of a chore - sort of like cleaning my room, with added importance, of course. My room appears as if a hurricane spiraled through, with piles of laundry, snacks and my dog's footprints. I ignore my mom's texts to tidy up until she pounds on my door. I hear a constant knocking these days, reminding me to get...
With the holidays right around the corner, it's time to consider The Fear-of-Death Diet. Of all the diets I've tried, none has been more successful than The-Fear-of-Death Diet. It's a lot like that well-known adage: "Nothing clarifies the mind like a hanging." Especially your own. I came across The Fear-of-Death Diet by accident at my doctor's office. Most of my "numbers" were not good. Since I was an avid, decades-long lap swimmer, I thought I could eat whatever I wanted. App...
I never expected to be where I am now. And I am everything I expected I would be now. I never thought I would be a single mom now. And I know I am a better parent because of that now. I never thought I would still not be in the career I want at age 45, right now. And I know that every day I keep learning, especially now. These seem like complete contradictions. Since I last wrote for The Hinsdalean, so much has changed, and these statements are completely true and in juxtaposi...
The room where my husband Mark and I wait with our dog Cody is sterile and smells like antiseptic. It never bothered me before, but now the bare beige walls and steel table seem harsh and mean. We sit in silence on the hard wooden bench. We've discussed every possibility. Everything's been tried and nothing worked. I've worn my glasses for a month now. My contacts get too fogged up when I cry. I scan my phone while Mark sits with his elbows on his knees, watching our dog....
