Mixed Metaphors

Mar 08 2025

Self-Care During Uncertain Times

“Self-care is how you take your power back.” – Lalah Delia

“When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.” – Kristin Neff

First, before I write anything else, let me simply state, I’m grateful. I’m alive, I woke up in a safe and warm home, I’m 75-years-old, and I have a gift of this new day. I’ve learned not to take anything for granted and to acknowledge I’m loved and I have abundance in my life. Life is not always easy, yet it’s worth the commitment and work of self-care. I may not have everything I want; yet I have everything I need. I’m lucky. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Step Recovery, AA, Affirmations, Chaos, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Journaling, Peer Support, Recovery, Relationships, Resilience, Self-Care, Sobriety, Therapy, Uncertainty

Jan 20 2025

Posts

The Toilet Zone: Second Flush

The Inauguration

“You will find it necessary to let things go; simply because they are heavy.” — Anonymous

Preface

As I draft this preface, on the eve of the inauguration of Trump’s second term, today TikTok went dark and returned in the same day. The recent news that Facebook will no longer use independent fact-checkers, instead ‘community notes’ like the X social media platform to determine the veracity of information, caused some friends to leave and join Bluesky instead. They posted their contact info, and said their goodbyes. Lastly, there’s the Facebook Blackout on inauguration day, plus a protest of Trump’s inauguration and news coverage by not watching. What does this really accomplish? This is how I weigh in… Continue reading →

Tagged 47th President, Activism, Blackout 1-20-25, Bluesky, Executive Orders, Facebook, First Flush, LGBTQ, Oath of Office, Pardons, People's March, Prayer for My Voice, Presidential Inauguration, Second Flush, Stay Out of the Closet, Tech Oligarchs, The Toilet Zone, Trump

Jan 05 2025

Films

Hannah, Abby, & Sam: Virtual BFFs

BFF definition: Informal. plural bffs, BFFs

a person’s best friend, typically a girl’s (sometimes used facetiously)
one’s close associate, ally, or supporter

“All the literati keep an imaginary friend.” — W. H. Auden

“I still think most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up. We’re still playing imaginary games, with our imaginary friends.” — Ian Rankin

Continue reading →

Tagged Abby McEnany, BFFs, Binge-watching, Chosen Family, Cinephile, COVID-19, Family, Friends, Friends IRL, Girls, Holiday Staycation, Imaginary Friends, Lena Dunham, Lesbian, LGBTQ, Somebody Somewhere, Streaming Content, TV, Virtual BFFs, Work In Progress

Dec 31 2024

Posts

Things Change: Look Back at 2024 & Look Ahead to 2025

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez

On the Sunday before New Year’s Day, I relaxed in my recliner, watched CBS Sunday Morning — my weekly ritual — with the fireplace glowing, cozy, under my holiday gift of a soft throw. Definitely, a hygge moment. Hygee is defined as follows, “…a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).”

Continue reading →

Tagged 2024, 2025, Brother, Childhood Home, Chosen Family, COVID-19, Death, Family, Father, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Home, Intentions, Look Ahead, Look Back, Mounjaro, New Year, Racine, Recovery, Relationships, Sisters, Things Change, Tiny Home

Nov 09 2024

2 Comments

Posts

On Writing & Storytelling

“Sometimes we become what we do. I became a writer by writing.”— From Celebrating a Decade of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been drafting content and designing a PowerPoint presentation, a Community of Practice Webinar for Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialists (WICPS). I’m a WICPS in the work I do as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate for the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center. The subject of my webinar, which I’ll present later this week is, Building Peer Trust by Sharing Lived Experience. Continue reading →

Tagged Blogging, Family, Father, Grief, Legacy, Madison, Memoir, Memories, Mother, Oral History, Personal Narratives, Racine, Recovery, Stories, Storytelling, Things Change, Writing

Oct 26 2024

Posts

The Last Closet Door: Act II

Private Life: Look Inside

“All human beings have three lives, a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” Hamill added, “A private life is by invitation only. A secret life is nobody’s business.” — Pete Hamill

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” — Martha Popp

Background on the Series

For readers who missed the first installment of this series — I opened the last closet door to the public on October 26, 2023, Intersex Awareness Day, when I revealed — I’m intersex. I was born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). Today, I invite you to learn about my private life. Continue reading →

Tagged AIS, Allyship, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, Body Dysphoria, CAIS, Family, Father, Gonadectomy, Intersex, Intersex Awareness Day, Intersex Flag, Milwaukee Children's Hospital, Mother, Nonbinary, Private Life, Public Life, Secret Life, Shame, Stigma, The Last Closet Door, Trauma

Sep 27 2024

2 Comments

Posts

Things Change

“There is nothing permanent except change.” — Heraclitus

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” —Alan Watts

As a person of a certain age — my favorite euphemism for old —change is an undeniable truth of life. As I write, it’s the eve of autumn, the changing of the seasons, and the day before a memorial service for a coworker, confidant, and friend. Things Change has also been the theme of this year, and the title of my 17th annual journal, which begin in September. It’s also the final chapter of my life — no longer a dress rehearsal — yet an opportunity “To change the things I can” and leave a legacy behind, the measure of my life. Continue reading →

Tagged Culture, Death, Family, Father, Friends, Gratitude, Health, Holidays, Home, Loss, Love, Madison, Mother, Racine, Recovery, Relationships, Technology, Things Change, Work

Jul 14 2024

Posts

Goodbye to Our Childhood Home

You Can’t Go Home Again — Title of the novel by Thomas Wolfe

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world.” — Ari Berk

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou

Grief and gratitude, letting go and holding on, and things change have been themes for me this past year (and longer).

Note: This reminiscence was written in response to the prompt, Home, for my Door County Write On LGBTQ+ Writers’ Group.

Continue reading →

Tagged Brother, Death, Family, Father, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Home, Loss, Love, Memoir, Memories, Mother, Racine, Sisters, Stories, Traditions

May 12 2024

3 Comments

Posts

The Third Place Project

In Search of a Home Away from Home & Work

“Your third place should come with a sense of ease and offer respite from the world without removing you from it altogether.” — Emily McGowan

As I write, tomorrow is Monday and I return to work. I’m grateful. In my 7^th decade, I’m living an engaging, meaningful, and satisfying balanced life. I work half-time, Mondays-Thursdays, doing work that is a passion rather than a vocation. Work provides an opportunity to give back to my community at the same time it supports me financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Work is my ‘second place.’ Continue reading →

Tagged Ancora Maple Bluff, Apple Island, Chocolaterian, First Place, Hotel Washington, Lakeside St. Coffeehouse, Linden Cohousing, Lysistrata, Northstreet, Ray Oldenburg, Second Place, Sundance 608, The Great Good Place, Third Place

Apr 14 2024

Posts

AI, “Be afraid, be very afraid.”

A Boomer’s Take on Artificial Intelligence

First, let me start by stating — like most of my generation — I’m a late adopter to technology. Instead of A.I. as a study aid, we had Cliff & Spark Notes. In place of social media, like Instagram and Tik Tok, we passed around notebooks in school so our friends could respond with some snarky comment or gossip. For most of us, we thought algorithms had something to do with algebra and slide rules and we wanted nothing to do with them. The tools we used most to communicate and create were in-person conversations with each other, word play, and childhood games. Continue reading →

Tagged AI, Artificial Intelligence, Books, Cinephile, Dystopian future, Existential Threat, Films, Late Adopter, Machine Learning, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Technology

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.