In case you need a reason not to lie to your boss — Until recently, I worked with a woman whose hobby was breeding, raising, and selling snakes. Sometimes her side hustle involved shipping live snakes to buyers — or having live snakes shipped to her. This co-worker, let’s call her Debbie, was not particularly good at her job. We work with data…

It’s hard to keep doing all the stuff — National Poetry Writing Month was a good excuse for me to take a break from writing anything that wasn’t poetry. With poetry, one can always cheat a little by writing a Haiku, something short. When I’m tired and uninspired, I find myself writing a lot of cat poetry. I look…

Good thing I’m a rebel — I have five outdoor cats: Sméagol, Fievel, Houdini, Hitler, and Mamacat. I have let each of them come inside a few times, both accidentally and intentionally. However, the one who gets to come inside for long stretches of time is Sméagol. Smeegs is so naïve that he has never even…

They seem to like it, and it’s completely dog-proof — I’ve heard the coyotes singing across the fields, and I’ve seen neighbors’ dogs running loose with fresh blood on their mouths from whatever they had just killed. Needless to say, I worry about my outdoor cats. I live in two rooms in my sister’s house — two rooms which I…

Do you know your risk level? — I expect to receive a phone call from my doctor’s office today with results from the mammogram I had on Friday. Mammogram time has aligned with tax season this year for an added dose of anxiety. In 2020, my twin sister went for a routine mammogram — that she almost…

Almost any student can write a pantoum — I’ve declared Fridays to be Poetry Workshop Days for the rest of the school year. Poetry is my favorite thing to teach, so it’s a little treat for myself at the end of each week. Today, I’m teaching them to write pantoums, which is a form that helps any student…

Sweet Zombie’s story — At three in the morning, I woke to what may have been the sound of coyotes. Sweet Zombie was in his favorite place, curled up in a tight gray ball right next to me. I couldn’t help myself. Even though I knew what the consequences would be, I reached out…

It is a rare cat who enjoys the company of children — “Don’t chase the cats!” I say for the hundredth time, but my nephew Carson just can’t help himself. He isn’t really intending to chase. He’s just so darn enthusiastic. And radiating with energy. In general, energy and enthusiasm act as cat repellents. Cats like people who are calm. Whenever Carson…

And why this introvert is giving up on dating forever — Back in December, in a fit of loneliness, I reactivated my Facebook dating account. I’m still dealing with the repercussions. I’ll admit, sometimes I am naïve. So when I saw Facebook had a new matching feature called “Friendship,” I assumed people were using it to look for friends. As far…