If you’ve been following my story for a while you know that a few years ago during the pandemic lockdown I got a report from my doctor informing me that I had skipped right over “pre-diabetic” and landed firmly in the type-2 diabetes category. I control my blood sugar with pulls and diet, and once or twice a year my… read entire post
Category Archives: My Life
Man (Temporarily) Down
It happened quickly.
I had just finished digging around in my toolbox out in the garage when I turned, attempted to step over the lawnmower, and felt my right shoe catch on something. I was already stepping forward, so staying in place was not an option. As I felt myself begin to fall, I yanked my right leg in an… read entire post
Good News from the Doctor
While sitting in my doctor’s waiting room the morning my birthday, I asked myself, “Why am I doing this again?”
Every year on her birthday, Susan takes the day off and schedules her yearly physical. That makes it easy to remember (kind of like changing the batteries on your smoke detectors when you change your clocks for daylight savings time),… read entire post
A Long Journey Ends
When I get really stressed out, the pressure manifests itself in the form of back pain. Cramps form in both my lower and upper back, and spread until they meet somewhere in the middle. By 8 a.m. last Saturday, I had already taken one round of Ibuprofen, and had a second round of pills stashed in my pocket for later.… read entire post
Winning Two Jackpots
In the fall of 2017 I began work on my grad project, a novel titled The Human Library. On April 19, I delivered copies to the three members of my graduate committee. Two weeks later on May 4, I returned to the University of Oklahoma to defend my work.
I spent those two weeks preparing. I wrote an outline of… read entire post
Graduating with Honors: Kappa Tau Alpha
In the fall of 1991, three months after graduating high school, I walked into Redlands Community College. I walked out two years later with no degree and a 3.25 grade point average. After another year at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, I still hadn’t graduated and my GPA had dropped to 3.10 after pulling a 2.75 there. As much as I… read entire post
A $69.50 Robe
I left work a couple hours early Thursday afternoon to visit the University of Oklahoma and submit the final paperwork required for graduation.
Perhaps its from years of dealing with computers, but I prefer things to be linear and, if at all possible, chronological. Purchasing a cap and gown two months before I defend my final project almost seems presumptuous… read entire post
The Purple Star
This semester, along with two other classes, I began work on my senior project — a fiction novel. Each week, I write a new chapter for my novel and present it to the head of my committee. During our weekly sessions, my professor reads the chapter and provides me with immediate feedback.
Project is the intersection where form meets art.… read entire post
A Rough Semester Comes to an End
Wednesday, January 18, 2017, was the day I realized I had made a mistake. It was 9 p.m., and my third class of the evening had just ended. I was exhausted, and I still hadn’t eaten dinner. That day, and every Wednesday for the next four months, I woke up at 5 a.m., started work at 6 a.m., worked eight… read entire post
Another Semester Down
At 5 p.m. on Thursday, I left the University of Oklahoma seven credit hours closer to a graduate degree in Professional Writing. Fourteen credit hours down, eighteen to go.
This semester I took Tutorial and Creative Nonfiction.
In Creative Nonfiction we developed nonfiction book proposals. Throughout the semester we wrote query letters, researched markets, developed chapter summaries, penned a synopsis… read entire post