Mixed Metaphors

Dec 06 2022

Posts

Letter to Loved Ones (Just in Case)

“My life has not always been easy, but it’s always been worth the effort. I’ve not always possessed what I’ve wanted, but I always received what I needed, and most days it was simply the love of friends and family, and the ability to live comfortably in my own skin.” — from Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

For those who know me personally and/or read my blog or social media posts, I’m open and share freely about my personal life, some say I overshare. I write about my lived experience, often the mundane moments of everyday life, and sometimes I wax philosophically or poetically about our shared universal human experience. In essence, I’m an open book, and you choose whether to pick it up and read, or not! Continue reading →

Tagged Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Hip Replacement, Journals, Legacy, Letter to Loved Ones, Love, Obituary, Recovery, Tag Team Sisters

Oct 16 2022

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Hip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!

“Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!”

[Song composed by Allie Wrubel with lyrics by Ray Gilbert for the Disney 1946 live action and animated movie Song of the South, sung by James Baskett.]

First, I took some liberty with the happy song from my childhood for the title of this installment of the Dispatch from the Hideout series, to express optimism about the relief and restoration I hope to experience from my upcoming hip-replacement surgery.

A note about the movie that featured the song: It was considered by the NAACP as racist and released this statement, “…in an effort neither to offend audiences in the North or South, the production helps to perpetuate a dangerously glorified picture of slavery … [the film] unfortunately gives the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship, which is a distortion of the facts.” To read more about the film and the controversy it caused, Song of the South: 12 Things to Know About Disney’s Most Controversial Movie.

Continue reading →

Tagged Chosen Family, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Hip Replacement, Osteoarthritis, Pandemic, Pod Squad, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

Sep 24 2022

Posts

Finding Recovery Strategies

September is National Recovery Month

Recovery Month is “a national observance held every September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and community members across the nation who make recovery in all its forms possible.”

Note: This article was originally written for and published in the September/October issue of Our Lives magazine on behalf of the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin, where I serve as the LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate supporting community members and allies struggling with substance and alcohol use, and mental illness. I’m in recovery from alcohol, substances, and behaviors that no longer serve me for over 35 years. I’m also a Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialist.

Continue reading →

Tagged Alcohol Use, COVID-19, Drug Overdose, Harm Reduction, LGBTQ, Madison, Mental Illness, Narcan, OutReach Community Center, Overdose Deaths, Recovery, Safer Use, September Recovery Month, Stigma, Substance Use

Sep 11 2022

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Posts

Childhood Comfort Food: Served with Memories

“Food is a lot of people’s therapy — when we say comfort food, we really mean that. It’s releasing dopamine and serotonin in your brain that makes you feel good.” — Brett Hoebel

Definition: “Food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking.”

Note: This reminiscence was originally written as a response to the prompt, ‘childhood comfort food’ for my Door County Write On LGBTQ+ Writers Group.

September in the Midwest is my favorite time of year. It marks the changing of the seasons, the end of summer and the beginning of fall; warm days and cool nights when one grabs their favorite sweatshirt or sweater while still wearing shorts — comfort and comfort food season. Continue reading →

Tagged Changing of the Seasons, Childhood, Comfort Foods, Family, Friends, Holidays, Home, Home cooking, Kringle, Memories, Mom's Cooking, Mother, Racine, Recipes

Aug 08 2022

3 Comments

Posts

For the Love of Movies (& Memories of My Mother)

“Ever since I was a child, films, like good books, served as windows to worlds sometimes unfamiliar or far away due to distance in time or space. Movies depicted characters both fictional and historical, unraveled mysteries or documented adventures; they always engaged my emotions and attention. Some films are more familiar and familial, memoirs or morality tales that act like mirrors to my lived experience, or road maps of my internal journey. I prefer non-fiction to fiction. Most fiction, in my view, is simply reality in disguise, employed to protect the innocent and the guilty. As a memoirist I am most interested in the stories we tell and the stories untold about our lives.” – Excerpt from Stories We Tell/Stories Untold

Continue reading →

Tagged Cinephile, Family, Father, Films, Gratitude, Joanne Woodward, Lesbian, Marriage, Memoir, Memories of My Mother, Mother, Movies, Paul Newman, Racine, Stories, The Last Movie Stars, Wisconsin Film Festival

Jun 29 2022

Posts

Rainbow Scare

“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” — Maya Angelou

“If the Supreme Court can reverse Roe, it can reverse anything” — Mary Ziegler

Earlier in June, I began to consider a topic for my next blog post. I often begin my writing process with research, reading online, frequently the subject is politics, culture wars, and/or the news of the day. I also reflect on my lived experience and things that pique my curiosity.

I decided on Rainbow Scare and soon after read an opinion piece by Allison Hope. I also became alarmed when the leak occurred earlier in May of the draft Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade and its potential impact overturning settled law. It raised the possibility that the gains we made in the last decades could be undone. We’d essentially go back in time. We could lose reproductive rights, both access to abortions and contraceptives, and for women, the ability to make decisions about what happens to our bodies, plus our LGBTQ+ community may have our marriages nullified and our relationships criminalized. Oh, my! Continue reading →

Tagged Abortion, Activism, Feminism, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+ Rights, Love Is Love, March on Washington for the ERA, Politics, Pride, Protests, Rainbow Scare, Roe v. Wade, The Personal Is Political, The Political Is Personal, The Supreme Court of the U.S., Wisconsin

May 30 2022

Posts

Childhood Report Cards: Snapshots of the Future

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” — Graham Greene

On April 1^st my sister Tami, niece Gemma and I traveled to Racine to visit our father and Gemma’s grandfather to celebrate his April Fool’s Birthday. We told stories, reminisced about our shared past — updated each other on our current lives — and our plans for the future.

We shared stories about all the pranks our family played on Dad for his April Fool’s Birthday over the years. We updated each other on what’s happened since we saw or talked to each other last. Gemma talked about graduating from high school and her plans to attend the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall.

Dad has been downsizing and purging items from our childhood home with the help of my siblings. He’s 92-years-old, uses a walker, and navigates the first floor of his home, and no longer uses the stairs to the basement and second story. Family members have been claiming items one last time from the basement and attic that we each want to keep, before the dumpster was scheduled to arrive later in April and our brother Rick and his crew of two helpers, would dispose of things that weren’t claimed or recycled. Continue reading →

Tagged Childhood Report Cards, Death, Elementary School, Family, Father, Henry Mitchell School, Memorial Day, Middle School, Racine, S.C. Johnson School, Snapshots of the Future, Starbuck School, Stephen Bull School, Uvalde 21 Victims, WI

Apr 08 2022

Posts

Awakening Desire

“…pleasure is not a ‘nice to have.’ It’s a ‘need to have.” — from the Netflix series, The Principles of Pleasure.

During spring, my desires awaken. Like the earth defrosting in the warm sun from the extended daylight, I too unthaw and heat up, begin to have cravings and appetites that slumbered during our Midwestern winters. My senses are enhanced. I observe more couples outdoors in the neighborhood, taking romantic walks, holding hands, some with dogs and children in tow. Following is a poem that captures the itchy restlessness of spring fever. Continue reading →

Tagged Awakening Desire, Happiness Chemicals, Itchy Restlessness, Relationships, Skin Hunger, Spring Fever, The Dilemma of Desire, The Five Senses, The Principles of Pleasure, Third Winter, Touch Deprived

Mar 20 2022

Posts

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2021

“The part about going to the movies that was so thrilling was not the film itself…but being around other humans, tearing up at the end and realizing that the people on either side of me were sniffling, too.” — How Life Resumes, NTY, Melissa Kirsch, 2/19/22

Things change. As I write, the Academy Awards are a week away on Sunday, March 27. I usually post my annual, A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films, well in advance of the Oscars. Since the event is approaching, the deadline for this review is here.

Award shows this year, those that didn’t cancel their in-person events, were delayed. The same was true of many of the films from 2021. Studios hoped people would feel safe enough to return to theaters in person so they postponed premieres. Most didn’t feel safe, including me. Continue reading →

Tagged A Filmgoer's Guide to the Best Films, Audiences, B/W, Cinephile, COVID-19, Critics, Family, Father, Films, Grief, Loss, Love, Mother, Movie Theater, Movies, Pandemic, Personal Narratives, Relationships, Reviews, Stories, Streaming Subscriptions, The Bechdel Test

Mar 15 2022

Posts

The Road Forward: A Recovery Journey

Finding the Light in the Darkness

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu

Note: This article was originally written for and published in the March/April issue of Our Lives magazine, a look at the impact of the isolation of the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and a Wisconsin winter on our LGBTQ+ community. I drafted it in February. A link to the March/April issue of Our Lives follows the article.

Continue reading →

Tagged Alcohol Use, Behavioral Health, COVID-19, Harm Reduction, Isolation, LGBTQ, Our Lives Magazine, OutReach Community Center, Recovery, SAD, SAMHSA, Spring, Substance Use, The Road Forward, Winter, Wisconsin

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