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Teresa's Blog – August 2010 Archive (9)

Beautiful Life

When patients used to ask me if mammograms were safe, I'd tell them something I read about the "risks/benefits ratio". Every decision in life involves this ratio. It's a double question of What will I gain and What will I lose? Life is a trade-off so even the best balancing acts can't achieve total gain (you can't get something for nothing), and even our worst mistakes aren't a total loss (we learn best from these). We've got one shot at a beautiful life. The trick is to take… Continue

Added by Teresa on August 27, 2010 at 10:00am — 10 Comments

In The Water

I'm always bumping my elbows, stumbling (literally and figuratively), and forgetting things. I often see myself in unflattering movie characters such as the two starring fish from Finding Nemo: Marlin the nervous control freak and Dori the forgetful optimist. On better days I'm Deborah Kerr's character in An Affair to Remember, and although she didn't bump her elbows much in the movie she did, er, get hit by a bus because she was "...looking up". But when my hormones,… Continue

Added by Teresa on August 26, 2010 at 3:30pm — 11 Comments

Out of Water

It was my forgetting the little red tie for her school uniform that finally broke me, realizing my five year-old will not match the other small plaid Catholic soldiers today when they attend mass at 8:15 am. I should forgive myself for this error as it is the first Friday of the school year, the first Friday mass, except I'd reminded myself several times during the week to remember the red, to adhere to the rules, to be perfect and impress. I also forgot that I was due at Parent Information…

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Added by Teresa on August 20, 2010 at 11:50am — 16 Comments

1,000 Miles

Elkins Road snaked through quiet tree-lined neighborhoods, along pristine golf courses and past an "exemplary" high school. Corinne noted a marching band standing in the school parking lot, stiff white soldiers in tidy rows who practiced line-ups at each summer's end; instructors stood on towers above them to get a better view of flaws in the lines, just as the gods were watching Corinne now as she began to make messy decisions about her life. She'd been "sliding" forever, marching in one…

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Added by Teresa on August 13, 2010 at 10:30am — 16 Comments

Smells Like Team Spirit

I was a Dallas Cowboys fan for about five minutes, a hiccup of loyalty born of two Marker's Mark Bourbon and Diet Coke cocktails, but a question burned away the fog of imagined team spirit: What Is Football? During the last game I attended my mind was flooded with images of soldiers at war, homelessness, world hunger, disease, poverty, our dying Social Security fund and the national deficit all juxtaposed with the expense of attending a football game -- the $300+ tickets, $15 kobe…

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Added by Teresa on August 10, 2010 at 5:00pm — 12 Comments

Soul Death

When the house was scrubbed pure again its granite countertops sparkled and the carpet boasted sterile vertical lines. The air smelled like rain and I wanted to melt in the centered perfection of order, to light Chrismas Cookie candles and drift in the smooth serenity of Hilary Stagg. The he came home and promptly littered the kitchen with odd bits of trash, dark coffee grounds and careless splashes of water. He tossed sweaty socks on a chair nearby, clipped callouses from his feet and… Continue

Added by Teresa on August 6, 2010 at 11:30am — 16 Comments

Conversations With The Dead

Her letters are kept in an envelope behind a cabinet door in my office; on the outside of the brown envelope is a single word written in black ink: Mom. I read the letters every few years, her voice a ghost that still whispers from the grave. I learn new things about us both in the rearview that makes everything clearer. As I drifted to sleep the other night I heard her lilting voice ask if I'd post her letters for others to read and when I mentioned this to someone I trust most in the… Continue

Added by Teresa on August 6, 2010 at 10:30am — 8 Comments

She's Lost That "O" Feeling

When she's ovulating you're a hero. When her nethers are a throbbing slip-slippery-slide, she sees you not as the slob that you are but as Zeus, Apollo and Hercules. She'll chase you 'round the kitchen island, surreptitiously grab your privates in public. She will, to your chagrin, straddle you during the Big Game and insist that you play to her goal. She'll worship your body, your mind and your mess till you believe you are Zeus, Apollo and Hercules. When the… Continue

Added by Teresa on August 3, 2010 at 2:30pm — 11 Comments

Metaphor Challenge: Othello

When Daddy announced Mama wouldn't be coming home, Tessa quickly ran outside to cry alone with her best friend Othello, a magical seven year-old cat she believed could transmit wise thoughts. She wasn't exactly sure what Daddy's news meant but felt jagged things in her throat and stomach. She watched the blond grasses lean in the direction of the wind, invisible caresses passing over shimmery wheaten waves. Othello remained quietly…

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Added by Teresa on August 2, 2010 at 11:00am — 8 Comments