Author Archives: Linda Lenzke

Pajama Day: Or How I Failed at Hobnobbing

Pajama Day: A day, usually on a weekend or during a day off, when you have nothing to do and sit around lazily in your pajamas, not leaving the house. Often involves eating cereal for every meal and excessive television/video games.

Hobnobbing: Mix socially, especially with those of higher social status. To hobnob means to chat and share a laugh and a drink in the presence of other people at a function or party.”

First, a little background: Things that make you say “Hmmm!” It’s April in Wisconsin and on the eve of the Presidential Primary election statewide servers were down for several hours Friday — April Fool’s Day — disrupting the last day of in-person absentee voting. Next, it’s officially spring, yet yesterday’s weather was bipolar, alternating between blizzardy snow with blustery winds and blue skies with powder puff clouds. Continue reading

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Fast Forward through the Looking-Glass

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Peeking Behind the Curtain of My Third Act

It only seems appropriate that on this first day of spring, a time of new beginnings, I look ahead and take a peek at what may be waiting for me behind the curtain of the third act of my life. I find, as someone who journals regularly, I time travel a lot. I review what’s already transpired, I write about what I’m thinking or feeling in the moment, and I look ahead to what’s next.  The thing that makes the future different is that I can only imagine, anticipate, and speculate what it might look like. Continue reading

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On the Move Again!

“The first step in getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.”  — Unknown

It’s that time of year in Madison, Wisconsin when U-Hauls and Two Men and a Truck will soon clog the streets. Popup curbside flea markets appear overnight as university students dump their second-hand furniture and poorly-assembled IKEA desks and bookcases rather than move them. It’s so commonplace that when student leases expire on August 15th, we’ve dubbed it “Hippie Christmas.” Continue reading

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Gool: What Is It, Where Is It, How to Create It

Sometimes a subject for an essay is a found gem discovered in a friend’s Facebook post. Thank you Mark, friend and fellow writer, for posing this question, Gool: What Is It, Where Is It, How to Create It. Here’s Mark’s (minimally-edited) Facebook post:

 “Remember when we were kids in elementary school at recess time playing tag? We had gool…that one place we could go to where we couldn’t be touched and made “It.” You remember that too? Here’s my question…now that we’re adults, where the *#%@ is gool? Because the last few months, I feel like I’ve been in a game of tag and I’m running…trying not to be made “It.” And I’m out of breath…could someone point me in the right direction, please?” Continue reading

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The Loud Family Loses a Loved One

We Say Goodbye to Our Matriarch

First, a little background:  In 1973 American TV audiences were introduced to a groundbreaking 12-part documentary series on PBS entitled An American Family featuring the Louds, an upper middle class family in Santa Barbara, California. This was considered the first reality TV series. Keeping with its irreverent tradition of satirizing American culture, Saturday Night Live in season four, episode six, created its own Loud family, starring Jane Curtin as Mrs. Loud, Bill Murray as Mr. Loud and their daughters, Gilda Radner and guest host, Carrie Fisher with supporting characters played by John Belushi, Dan Ayckroyd and Garrett Morris. Continue reading

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A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2015

First, as a filmgoer I want to begin by acknowledging that 2015 was an excellent year for movies.  Blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens both entertained the filmgoing audiences and made money for the studios. Dramas and biopics told stories about people and events that shaped politics and culture, including Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in Love and Mercy, Steve Jobs in both documentary and narrative films about his life, the Cold War in Bridge of Spies, and the Blacklist of screenwriters accused of being Communists in 1950s Hollywood in Trumbo.  The mortgage banking and financial crisis of Wall Street was portrayed in The Big Short, and one of the best films of the year, Spotlight, revealed the pervasive abuse of vulnerable children by Catholic priests in Boston and beyond by the investigative reporters of the Boston Globe. Continue reading

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Full Moon on Christmas Day: Part II

Christmas Present and Christmas Future

“Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding. You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.” — Cheryl Strayed

This is Part II of a personal essay on the holidays. The subject of Part I was pre-holiday musings and reminiscing about childhood Christmas celebrations past. I’m grateful to my parents for their gifts to me, most importantly their love, nurturing, and support and for the delight I experienced on Christmas morning as a child when I saw the decorated tree and gift-wrapped presents.

Part II is also recognition that things change; we experience loss in our life as we age. Loved ones leave us, others die, and some traditions are more difficult to sustain.  People move across country, move on from childhood to adulthood, and sometimes family members and loved ones create chasms too difficult to bridge. Continue reading

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Full Moon on Christmas Day: Part I

Pre-Holiday Musings & Memories of Christmas Past

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.”  Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The bright moon glows amongst pines.” — Wang Wei

Christmas approaches and for those who celebrate this Christian holiday or families like mine of Northern European heritage who practice a more Americanized consumer tradition we are being treated to a Full Cold Moon on Christmas Day. The Full Cold Moon is also called the Long Night Moon by some Native American tribes because it’s near the Winter Solstice. Continue reading

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Conversations w/My Next Girlfriend: Episode 10

The Final Episode: This is the last in a series of imaginary conversations with my next girlfriend.

Dear Next Girlfriend,

It’s time. It was bound to happen sooner rather than later. I’ve been having lots of one-way conversations in my head with my ex-girlfriend and you — my next girlfriend. I’ve been living in the past, or imagining the future. As I said, it’s time. It’s time to be in the moment, in the here and now, and accept, yes, fully accept, that I’m single and I’m okay — all that TM (Transactional Analysis) self-help, self-talk from the bestselling self-help book I’m Okay, You’re Okay from 1969 that in 1972 made the New York Times Best Seller List. Next girlfriend, it’s not exactly like we’re breaking up — we never got together! Continue reading

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Waxing Sentimental

Nostalgia: (n.) a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

Tomorrow, Monday, November 30th is Cyber Monday. It’s the online equivalent of Black Friday, the Monday following Thanksgiving when people return to work and shop online and take advantage of deep discounts and promotions. In late November 2005, The New York Times reported: “The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.” Continue reading

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