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The Annual Birthday Post – A Poem
It’s my birthday, and you know what that means…the annual snarky birthday post. I’m celebrating this year’s birthday with a poem…Dr. Seuss style. Enjoy! Thanks for reading Steph’s Scribe! Happy Birthday Poem Another year has passed me by I could laugh but I want to cry For time has flown without a hitch This growing old thing is surely a bitch. One kid off to college—so fully grown To explore and call the world his own. The other in high school – independent and bold With her, we truly broke the mold. But with aging comes aches and pains You feels some losses, you feel some gains You hang on…
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Grocery Store Bonding and Singing in Safeway: Two Stories
I’m going to attempt to tell these stories as they happened, exactly as they happened. I live in the town of Severna Park, and the closest grocery store is Safeway, which is walkable. I’m over there constantly, as I’m not a big “do the grocery load for the week” kind of person. I pretty much figure out each day what we will eat, and run over and get whatever I need since it’s so convenient. In the last several months, I’ve had two hilarious Safeway Moments, as I shall call them. The first happened a few months ago when I was standing in line to pick up a prescription. The…
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The Birthday Post: 52 Life Lessons
Yup. It’s that time, I’m afraid. It’s time for the annual birthday post. It’s the one day of the year that I allow myself to feel blessed and old at the same time. It doesn’t make it easier when your own brother sends you these GOOD MORNING images with “Happy birthday” written across the top of the text. So, with those lovely images in mind, and with life lessons I’ve learned over the course of all my (yes, 52 years), I thought I’d share them with you today. Please know that these life lessons are in no particular order and were written with full honesty. 52 Life Lessons Thus Far…
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Vintage 1965: Today’s Annual Snarky Birthday Blog Post
It can be a little daunting watching celebrities who are born in your birth year or a year or two ahead of you grow old along with you but show no signs of wrinkles and aging. Their endless use of Botox, plastic surgeries, and hours in the gym cause you to compare yourself to them and wonder why you haven’t considered going under the knife or injection needle yourself (working out is quite possible if you set your mind to it). As much as I want to look as if I’m in my thirties, that isn’t quite realistic any more. It’s time to come to grips with aging and simply…
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Kissing My 40s Goodbye
All day you’ve been thinking about this blog post and what you will write. It’s your birthday, and it’s tradition that you write something snarky about aging. Some people will tell you they love growing older–maturing, growing up, watching their kids grow, maybe even becoming grandparents. It’s a lovely thought—growing old(er) naturally—as if we actually have a say in holding on to youth and beating Father Time. We don’t. Aging is not fun. So your birthday looms. It’s the big 5-0. You think about it for weeks. It practically consumes you. You notice every grey hair, ever extra mile you have to walk to shed .001 pounds, and each line…
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It’s Your Birthday. You’re only mildly old. Can you read the bottom line?
The morning went something like this. You got up early to be at the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) by 8:30 a.m. to have your license, which expires tomorrow (on your birthday) renewed. You waited until the last minute to get it done. There were too many other things to do this week, like drive your kid to golf many times and take your daughter to the movies. You’ve been writing all week–not Baseball Girl–but the textbook you’re working on with your brilliant colleagues. Nevertheless, you left it to the last minute, as you usually do, and thus suffered the consequences of waiting for almost an hour and a half until…
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It’s My Party, And I Won’t Cry. I Don’t Want To.
Dear Readers, Yes, I know. I am supposed to be on hiatus, hiding from the blogging world as I attempt to accomplish some other forms of writing and spend time with my family. But it’s tradition that I blog on my birthday. It’s my rite of passage, and it’s a time when I can reflect on some aspect of the last year that I have lived. For what is a birthday if not to celebrate life? Today’s birthday post will focus on the words that come from someone who is so famous he must be quoted. He has seen and done much. He has traveled the world, entertained us and…
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Thoughts on Teaching & The Spring Semester
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots. ~ Thurgood Marshall This year’s winter break has been a short one. I’m still getting my ducks in order and readying myself for the spring semester. It never feels daunting to me, but rather like a breath of fresh air…spring air. Even though it’s January and we won’t see the likes of flowers blooming and making it feel spring-like anytime soon, last year is over, and we’re in a state of…
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Fill in the Blanks on My Birthday
WARNING: TODAY’S POST VEERS FROM WHAT YOU MIGHT NORMALLY FIND ON STEPH’S SCRIBE. YOU MAY BE SUBJECTED TO USING YOUR OWN VOCABULARY TO FILL IN THE BLANKS, ALONG WITH IMMENSE SARCASM. PUT ON YOUR HARD HAT AND ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. There are times I’d like to throw around a curse or two on the blog, but I’m in a G-Rated-no-fly-the-curse-words-zone because my kids read it, so you’ll have to use your imagination and fill in the blanks accordingly. Kind of like Mad Libs of yore. ________ _________! That’s right. Here we go again. Yup. It’s my birthday. Good _________! Can you feel the exhilaration oozing through my pores,…
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For George & Thomas, John & Benjamin, With Thanks This 4th of July
Happy 4th of July, America! Today, we celebrate our country’s independence. We remember our Founding Fathers, and are thankful for men such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. As I look at all the Facebook posts my friends are making this morning, I know many of us are taking a moment to realize how thankful we are to live in this great United States of America. Parades of all sorts are happening as I write this: bikes are decorated in red, white, and blue; kids on rollerblades waving flags; floats being driven down the streets as people wave to spectators; police, firefighters, and emergency crews driving vehicles…
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Another Birthday and an Unsuspecting Birthday Fairy Godfather
* So, today is my birthday. I’m supposed to be happy about it. However, the elation aspect of it is all a bunch of bunk. I love these people who have rays of sunshine shooting out of their eyeballs and say things to you like, “Oh, don’t pay attention to the number that’s associated with your birthday. It’s better than the alternative!” Right-o. It’s tough to frown at flowery, cheerful, eternal optimists. Of course, I’d rather be here than in the hereafter, that’s a given. But can’t anyone just let me wallow in this number that’s less than thrilling? My husband tries to impart his positivism about this particular birthday…