• Blog
  • Heartbreak

    My heart is breaking! My new boss told me last month that he is not renewing my associate dean contract when it concludes on June 30. To be clear: I am not unemployed. I am a tenured professor in marketing, and I will return to teaching and research. But I have really loved my administrative […]

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  • Furry Bear

    Furry Bearby A. A. Milne If I were a bear, And a big bear too, I shouldn’t much care If it froze or snew; I shouldn’t much mind If it snowed or friz— I’d be all fur-lined With a coat like his! For I’d have fur boots and a brown fur wrap, And brown fur […]

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  • Waste Not, Want Not

    I wrote a few months ago about my dad’s passing. Mom is doing really well. My sister and I have been visiting her to help with some of the team projects. Last summer, I helped find a home for the 1980s electronics assemblies that my dad used in building Gamma Instruments (his thickness gauge business). […]

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  • MCB 1942-2023

    This post covers an ending of one era and a beginning of another. In Spring of 2022, my sister visited my parents. In our debrief she gave me stern instructions: Don’t wait until Thanksgiving to visit. Dad’s health is not good. I called home and confronted my dad. Amy says you are not going to […]

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  • Milo Jordan, 2004/5 – 2023

    Loyal readers of this blog have heard about our neighbor’s tuxedo cat Milo. The neighbor is Lois, although it might be more accurate to say that the neighbors are Milo and Lois. But now the neighbor is just Lois because Milo died last week. The last time we had our backyard fence rebuilt, we had […]

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  • 1986

    I entered college in 1986. My parents bought me an electric typewriter (Brother brand) to take to college. It had a rudimentary word processing feature with a one-line digital display. Who knew how soon the typing world would change? Not us. I don’t know what happened to that typewriter. It would not surprise me to […]

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  • I Love My Job

    I spoke at orientation at the start of the semester two weeks ago. It’s so fun to be part of the happy and nervous energy of the day. Our campus mascot, Chip, stopped by to greet the students and families. I love Chip. Yes, I understand that inside that grimy costume is a student. But […]

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  • Same Friend, Different Blessing

    Earlier on this blog, I shared “a friend’s blessing.” I will see that friend tomorrow, so she is on my mind. Here’s another one from her: In the fray of everyday life, may you embody your true nature. I catch myself repeating this instruction, like a song lyric stuck on repeat in my brain. With […]

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  • Who Said That?

    Son #2 was home for a few days from NYC. I asked him what the strangest or funniest or scariest (which I added reluctantly because who wants to know that? not this mama) thing he has seen in the subway. I follow Subway Creatures on instagram; I know there is strange stuff to be seen: […]