Jane Goodall, the British primatologist who studied chimpanzees in Tanzania was feeding a horse at the counter in a cafe by my house.

I am standing in my father’s kitchen. It’s the kitchen of my childhood, though the lime green cabinets from the 70’s have been stripped...

There I am in the United Airlines terminal when I realize: a ticket is not a plan. An airline ticket is not the golden ticket to success.

I didn’t know he’d been in the restroom building up his courage. I figured he was eating a hidden stash of beef jerky.

“Come on ladies! Don’t go! Take a chance! You could be winners!”

Shane is a bad boy. I'm not supposed to associate with bad boys.

Our birds have flown home for the time being, their disappointment palpable, but they are counting on us for comfort and continuity.

When Rumi said, “Listen to silence. It has so much to say,” I’m guessing he didn’t have tinnitus.

My understanding of the birds and the bees existed under a thick blanket of secrecy in the house of my childhood. When I was ten or so, I...

My house is a mere shell of it’s happiest self now that the Christmas decorations are gone. Early in December each box I bring out of...

I am 100% certain I'm going to die in this shit-hole motel above a dive bar with the remnants of a pot-infused chocolate bar in my hand...

Even if that Santa held no specific memories for me, he had once been held by my mother.

I got this voicemail from my dad. “Hi Suzanne, there’s this important Anniversary I need to tell you about, please call me back.”

Aunt Joanne’s stories were peppered with the names of famous people who’d graced her path and the fabulous places she’d been.

When I am out watching the kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, I'll be on the lookout for the ghost of Mabel Monohan.

“Mom,” he says, “I thought you’d be more emotional.” “Well, I’m feeling pretty good about all this,” I reply, “My job is done."

My father has never been one for face-to-face communication, but he always did know how to make a statement.

We attempted to surf the sand like Aladdin on magic carpets before taking our new kick-boards out to the foaming blue ocean.

My stomach turned as the wheel spun, the ball bouncing over blurred black and red numbers, this money he was risking was two month’s rent.

Truth is, I wasn’t always the best mother. In some ways it is amazing he and I made it out alive.

“God saved you once, I don’t know that you’ll get another chance.” But I let the screen door slam behind me, invincible.

Mom loved the idea that, if I married Finn, I might not only get married in the Catholic church, but she’d also have Catholic grandchildren.

“If they don’t bring you flowers when you’re dating them, then they definitely won’t when you marry them."

I’d never been fired before. I was a good student. I worked hard. And there I was, looking for a payphone under the Grand Opening sign.

With all that experience holding power tools, I never learned the cardinal rule to unplug them before touching their sharp mechanisms.

When I was eleven, I almost killed all of the children in my neighborhood.

“Why would you pay someone to clip your nails?” my mother questioned when I told her about my first manicure.

I literally missed the train by one croissant from the breakfast buffet stuffed in my purse, one glance back and a hand heart directed at...

Hidden in the drawer alongside spicy mothballs, my father had a gun! Was he a secret agent or something?

I’ll go. To keep the peace, I’m going to go. But I am angry at the cavalier way the decision is handed down.

My daughter wants us to get matching tattoos. It is sweet, really, that a twenty year-old wants to have a body part that looks the same...

Every time I got up to bat, the coach would say, “Let it hit you!” so I could get on base before I struck out.

I taught myself to count my blessings as I drifted off to sleep, the way you counted yours even when your challenges seemed insurmountable.

The Encyclopedia salesmen all did something that forever changed the trajectory of my academic knowledge.

I wish I’d been able to crawl out of my skin and be anywhere but in that conference room.

Amani, the medicine man’s home was part shack part tree house. He sat on a wooden rocking chair under a guava tree, clearly stoned.

Chita Rivera was a fiery Latina woman and I was a freckle faced fourteen year-old fantasist who had yet to sing a single one of my songs.

Bill says every time her hears Roberta Flack on the radio his eyes well with tears as he remembers the girl in green at the dinner party.

I can’t say that I fully appreciated the insanity of giving your daughter such a billboard to wear across her slowly developing chest.

Please choose me. Please choose me. PLEASE CHOOSE ME! I frantically screamed over and over in my head.

I quickly became quite the connoisseur, easily identifying the nuanced notes of difference between Tickle Pink and Sun Peach Pink...

It doesn’t matter where you go or what you have. What matters is who you have beside you.

After time, I noticed that thinking critically began to mean being critical. On the bright side, I now have a soft spot for George W Bush.

“That’ll teach you to break the rules young lady.” What it taught me was to hide things more effectively.

I want to have faith that this woman who is indelibly tied to my soul has not entirely disappeared in that single, simple gasp.

The boy knelt before the girl on the bow of the ship, sweating in his tuxedo, the Long Beach cityscape a sparkling backdrop for the...

I peel open my eyes to see the sun block by birds diving right at me, surrounding me in a crazy Alfred Hitchcockian cacophony of wings.

My mother decided she needed my help to plan her funeral, “Just in case.”

We were limited to imperfect cartwheels and summersaults, but that didn’t stop us from attempting to duplicate the moves of Olga Korbut.

I look like Ellie May Clampet in my floral print dress and Payless cowboy boots with my grandfather’s old gray suitcases by my side.