Author Archives: Chrissie

The Pooka Life

Boy do I love Portland.

Coming from San Diego, I was a little worried by the wet and the cold. I mean, last year we had something like 250 days of precipitation and that doesn

The Pooka Life

Finished The Mockingbird and loved it! I posted my review on the books page if you are looking for a good read.

Right now I’m trying to find a decently priced airline ticket home for next month for my high school renion and I’m not having any luck. The cheapest fare I can find is $250 with two stops! Not looking good for the reunion but I haven’t given up yet…..

The Pooka Life

I’m currently reading a wonderful book and I wish I had someone else to talk about it with. I think there is a lot of imagery and secondary meaning that I’m missing in this novel which is just too bad. So far, I’ve found two excellent quotes in my current novel….

“The way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”

“The trick to keeping a husband is to let him understand that you know, and tolerate, and in a goofy way even love, the little flaws and imperfections that would shame and humiliate him if anybody else were ever to discover them.”

However, my current read did inspire me to poke around for a book group and I found this group online. I like the variety of books and the discussions I’ve peeked at seem very insightful so I’m going to give it a try. That, and the fact that the next book they are going to discuss is In Cold Blood which I just read and enjoyed, decided me. Also, they only spend two weeks on each book rather than doing a chapter a week like many discussion groups. If nothing else, they have an extremely long “recommended reading” list that ought to keep me supplied with books for a very very long time. Yipee!

The Pooka Life

As painful and awkward as high school was, it produced some of my absolute best friends. These are people who, even though I may not see them or even speak to them regularly, I hold close to my heart. They, more than anyone else, helped to shape who I am and the values I hold dear.

It seems like ages ago and at the same time it seems like yesterday.

I remember we had our own breakfast club. Not like the movie, it was actually all about breakfast. We’d enlist the help of a parent and sneak into a friend’s house early on a Saturday morning and invade the kitchen, cook up a storm, and then surprise and wake our friend with a tray of food and laugh, laugh, laugh. Of course, everyone in the group was eventually hit but there was something wonderfully funny about sneaking into a buddy’s room and watching him blearily open his eyes to find everyone peering at him. Simply hilarious.

And How to Host a Murder parties where we’d all dress up as strange characters and try and deduce whodunit. Trips to Disneyland with walkie-talkies so the car pooling cars could stay in touch, wicked games of Hearts where no mercy was shown, and mixed tapes full of techno 80’s music.

Laura taught me to flirt, Jean taught me to cherish, Felix taught me to annoy, Lisa taught me to sing, Mike taught me to love, Roy taught me to relax, Heather taught me to try, Marilyn taught me to plan, Christine taught me natural beauty, and so on and so on until I became, well, me.

Kitchen Mess

Our kitchen was a pit last night. Dishes piled in the sink, food splatters on the stove, tupperware filed with growing green stuff. Just out and out gross. I will admit that I was partially responsible. I’ve been handing my dishes to Kevin at night under the assumption that he was cleaning them. And, as we all know, when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of yourself and umption..

So I spent twenty minutes loading the dishwasher, scrubbing the counters, and mumbling mild obscenities to myself. Kevin, smart man that he is, grabbed the dog and went for a long walk that lasted well through my cleaning tirade. Upon his return, he found me still grumpy so be began to do his Christopher Walken Weapon of Choice dance imitation. He knows that melts me every time.