Subconscious – Lisa Meltzer Penn

Dog Blog #3: Invitation to a Cat

Ruby’s first guest blog of the new year. With a little help from Lisa. They call me Ruby. Ruby the dog. They yell, “Ruby, Ruby!” And I come. Sometimes I come. Sometimes I stay where I am because I don’t feel like it. Sometimes I go outside and hide behind the bush. I don’t knowContinue reading “Dog Blog #3: Invitation to a Cat”

Dog Blog #2

I was just glancing at my NaNoWriMo files. I am a Winner! My goal for National Novel Writing Month was 50,000 words and ten short story drafts in the 30 days of November. I completed 50,000 words and drafted fourteen short stories. What I didn’t realize was that my intrepid Springer Spaniel, Ruby Penn, draftedContinue reading “Dog Blog #2”

Michelle Obama Is My Birthday Twin

I share a birthday with a lot of famous people: Jim Carey, Betty White, Muhammad Ali, Benjamin Franklin, Zooey Deschanel, Maury Povich, Kid Rock, James Earl Jones, and Eartha Kitt. We were all born January 17th. Pretty cool, right? But the one that really counts for me is Michelle Obama. Michelle and I were born the exact same cold winter day: I entered the world a month early in the middle of a snowstorm in Syracuse, NY (My mom liked to say it was the last time I was early anywhere), and Michelle made her debut several hundred miles away on the south side of Chicago. The future FLOTUS and I were birthday twins.

Dog Blog #1: Letters from a Dog

My dog, Ruby, received a letter in the mail. My niece Zooey picked Ruby to be her pen pal, and asked what kind of treats Ruby wanted when she saw her next, and if she would like to play fetch. Zooey is in second grade and wrote a very nice letter. Though I had lotsContinue reading “Dog Blog #1: Letters from a Dog”

Crowing From the Darkness

I’ve done my best to keep a positive outlook throughout this COVID-19 pandemic, stay safe, and follow the rules to keep everyone else safe. When the first shelter-in-place order came down from Sacramento March 19, those first weeks were surreal. Back then we thought it would be a short-term thing, we’d lick it, and moveContinue reading “Crowing From the Darkness”

Washing Your Hands, A Primer

Handwashing was the first thing I learned back in nursery school: Turning a bar of soap over and over in my hands and luxuriating in the creamy lather, the sensory bliss, though the soap would inevitably leave my skin dried out afterward. The feel, the look, the sound of the water running into the longContinue reading “Washing Your Hands, A Primer”

The Party Trick of Memory

What is the role of memory? I started two of the books from my library book stack simultaneously and they both drew me in so immediately I was alarmed I couldn’t actually read them both at the same time. So I read them back to back. Though they deal with different themes, settings, and socialContinue reading “The Party Trick of Memory”

The Pier

Saturday morning Jon and I leave our hotel and walk the one block to the beach. We’re on our first trip since shelter-in-place began, a one-night sojourn to Santa Cruz for our anniversary. The thick gray fog has lifted, and all across the beach a floating veil of mist visible to the naked eye isContinue reading “The Pier”