MeSoFun Blog

I have access to stock photos. That's what this picture proves. An email arrived last week that took me back. This wasn't a pleasant reminiscence. I wrote a blog a few years ago for spouses of PA school students, trying to help them through and let them know they're not alone. More than a few people have commented or emailed me to check in. What you say on the Internet lives on forever, they say, so here was the start of an email I received from a PA spouse whose husband had just started rotations. "My husband just started his clinical rotations away from home and I thought I had a handle on it, but I don't," it started. Immediately, my heart breaks. I know that feeling, except I never had the illusion that I had a handle on it. I definitely lost all my handles as the spouse of a PA student. That's just what it is. I know of not one single spouse that spent two years with a self-absorbed PA student and thought, "That really wasn't so bad." I...

Daisy later sprinted up one of the rows, ruining the scene. Sorry, perfect scene. As much as anything, this is a note to myself in August of next year. I love that somebody did this. Future self: Here's hoping you finally lost that 10 pounds you keep talking about losing, you handsome devil! I know you're dreading winter because it's August, and that's when you start spotting the premature changing of leaves. I'm here to remind you how good it can be. Christmas is Christmas. You don't love it, but people seem to be in good spirits. Don't forget to enjoy seeing other people be happy. The real fun comes in January. I know that sounds crazy, but really, we're in the worst stretch of winter and it's not bad at all. In fact, today was one of those days that you end every sentence with an exclamation point. You know what I mean! It was glorious! OK, enough of that. But seriously. The average high from Jan. 7 to Jan. 29 in Portland is 31 degrees. The averag...

Standard morning pose. Also, the chalk makes it look like I have hair. Sorta. People make New Year's resolutions. Or so I'm told. Gyms make a killing off the short-lived idea that "this will be the year that I get healthy," and so forth. Another girl in our lives, much to Daisy Duke's chagrin. Being a contrarian, I of course hate everything about this resolution business. But I don't think I'm perfect. Far from it. It's the Jan. 1 change that I object to. You can make a positive change any time. For instance, I wasn't happy with my 401(k) savings, so I gave the savings rate a significant boost. That was July 1. Or I wasn't happy with what I was doing at work, so I did something about it. I wrote a story for our newspaper. That was in September and October. And for the last six months of 2014, I did something more than a little obsessive. I got a phone with a pedometer in it and I averaged 15,000 steps a day. Every day. For six months. I'm c...