Wednesday morning I got my Real ID. #AchievementUnlocked. This triumph was especially sweet as it came on the heels of a crushing defeat: On Tuesday, I completely failed to get my Real ID. Yes, I spent almost two hours on my 50th birthday waiting at the DMV and left empty handed. (I tried to get…

I’m sure I have learned this before, but once again, I am surprised that Karen Carpenter’s birthday is so close to mine (just one day before.) Thank you Crooners. The song that Dan Chouinard and Dane Stauffer performed was actually “Yesterday Once More,” which is awesome, but “Rainy Days” is a personal hard-to-beat favorite. Here…

I missed my second day of 50 Days of Amy because I had a case of vertigo last night. No blogging for me, as I had to go to bed ASAP–even (slightly) before 10:00! For me, vertigo isn’t related to heights or Hitchcock, but is basically really bad, ongoing bed spins that seem to hit…

I’ve been thinking about and preparing for my 50th birthday for a long time. I want to make the most of it. I want to do something special.  I present to you: 50 Days of Blogging.  Hmmm, that may not sound so special, but one thing I have learned from running is the love of…

Last night I posted one of my more popular Facebook posts: Chad to me, “I don’t think I have the same relationship to salad that you do.” Now I am hardly a social media influencer so “popular” is relative, but this post received more “likes” and comments than my posts usually do (Yay for qualified…

…What I was thinking when I titled this blog post. Or more precisely, this blog post draft. Well, calling it a “draft” may be rather aspirational. When I just opened my blog and went to drafts, I was totally mystified with this draft, that actually consisted only of the phrase “God Only Knows…” Having saved…

I officially declare the “Chamy Staycation of 2020” a success. It may be the only staycation of any length (3 work days plus the weekend) we’ve ever had–definitely the only one in recent memory (and yes, for me, “recent memory” only covers a range of 3 hours–3 months). I’ll admit, I was a little nervous…

The Golden Rule isn’t always the best approach. I always try and remind myself of this when it’s Chad’s birthday. If I did unto Chad as I would have Chad do unto me for his birthday, it would be a month-long celebration with much fanfare. It would officially be a BIG DEAL in which much…

Tonight I finally decided to get my oil changed. It’s been on my mental “to-do” list for quite a while, and the flashing “5%” (indicating I only have 5% of my oil life left–thank goodness I don’t have that warning for my actual life) was adding to my overall background anxiety. While I was waiting…

My dad used to do many things—both intentionally and unintentionally—to annoy my mother. One of these was to refer to the “beauty salon” she frequented as the “beauty saloon.”  Whatever one called it, my mother regularly attended Julie’s Beauty Studio in Fall Creek to have her hair “done.” It wasn’t quite “Steel Magnolias,” or maybe it…