Creative Non Fiction

So have these plates. They have turkeys on them. Not happy little cartoon turkeys. Realistic looking ones. Service for twelve, to be exact, plus an enormous platter. You may ask yourself, “What is Ann doing with these dishes? They don’t quite seem like her.” And you’d be right. “The pattern…

If we haven’t met in real life, you might be surprised to learn that I am six feet tall. Here’s what it means to be a very tall girl: Everybody assumes you play basketball (I don’t). You are intimately familiar with the tops of your friends’ heads. People look at…

Part I Last week, Dave and I finally dealt with the change bucket. There’s a change bucket on our kitchen counter, and whenever we find any loose change in our pockets or lying around the house, we drop it in the bucket. Not so unusual, I guess. The bucket isn’t…

This morning, I took a walk around my neighborhood. Along the way, I noticed a tiny earthworm – a baby, really – struggling on the sidewalk. Earthworms invariably make me think of Sam’s preschool years. He was obsessed with returning them to the grass before they dried out. Saving earthworms…

I miss my mother. This morning, the feeling came through loud and clear in my journal, and to be honest, it kind of surprised me. We didn’t talk much when she was alive. Too often, I was caught up in my own stuff, unwilling to burden or be burdened. But…