If you went to elementary school in Oklahoma City in the 1960s, you learned three important items. 1. Football was very important, particularly OU football. When I was in seventh grade, the principal interrupted morning classes to announce over the loudspeaker that Steve Owens had won the Heisman Trophy. Cheers rang out through the school.…

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it was like to start college, about being a “new kid” at anything, really. I was so concerned about my appearance and thought so hard about what I should wear to my first class as a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, that I know exactly what I…

Where Did the Time Go? Surprise! The last time I sent out an email and posted in Substack, was May 2025. I thought I was going to write semi-regularly, but then all of the sudden, a lot of time had passed. There are multiple reasons for that of course, but here a couple of them.…

It took me forever to learn to waterski. My high school boyfriend’s family had a boat and one summer we’d finish our summer jobs at 5:00 and join a group of friends to drive to Canyon Lake. There, since very few people were on the lake, we would take advantage of the long days and smooth…

I’ve always loved to dance. You know that little girl at a wedding out twirling on the dance floor? That was probably me. I have memories of dancing in front of the television to any music show that happened to be on. From Porter Waggoner (country) to Lawrence Welk to American Bandstand, I danced to…

I often joke that people have two different responses upon learning that I have a law degree. One is “Oh, you went to law school? That’s so cool!” The other is, “Ugh, lawyers are the cause of everything that’s wrong in our world.” What I always find interesting is that they are sincere in each…

Where I live, oak pollen is as high as it has been since 2019. All sorts of us are having allergic reactions. I may be having one, but it also may be a plain old cold. I never know. Regardless of the cause I have almost no voice, a foghorn cough, and brain fog. It’s…

Several years ago, in the short period of time I ran regularly, Peter and I went on a running cruise in Alaska. We gathered with a group of about 90 runners and some walkers with the plan to run four times during the week. The first ‘race’ was a simple 5K around and around on the…

I grew up in what I often describe to friends as a “no whining” household. My parents made it very clear in a variety of ways that we were responsible for our responses to what life threw our way. A complaint of “that’s not fair”, usually elicited a response of “Who told you life was…