The first one comes in the fall of Jessica’s junior year, a letter from the admissions office of Kansas State University. I don’t immediately recognize what it is. Once I do, for a moment hope flaps its vain and tinsel wings. Maybe it’s true. Maybe my daughter can go to college, and get a great…

The other night I had a dream that Jessica was lost, and though I kept calling for her, I knew she was never coming back. I hate this dream. Sometimes it goes away for a while, but it is never gone. In a few weeks Jessica undergoes more testing. In February when we scheduled the…

Jessica is home from the hospital.  She was discharged over the weekend.  I had a phone meeting this morning, and she expressed strong disapproval over my not giving her my complete and undivided attention. (“I just had major surgery.” “You were asleep.” “I might have woken up.” “If I don’t get some work done, we’ll…

I know many of you have been looking at the calendar, and I wanted to give a brief update about Jessica’s condition.  The surgery went well, and she is out of the ICU and in a regular med/surg bed at the hosptial.  She has been eating chicken strips and french fries and drinking as much…

So the other day I got an unexpected check in the mail, and I went out and squandered it on a food processor and a Dustbuster. The nineteen-year-old who still lives in my brain was appalled that this is what I would do with a hundred bucks because she would have bought some great shoes…

The other day, I made the mistake of saying the word “anywho” to a friend who is a lifelong New Yorker.  If you’ve never heard this word, it means you’re not a midwesterner, and I can’t explain it.  Anyway, my friend suggested that I should probably avoid such provincialisms in the future or else people…