My Life
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Wheels of Hope
Bicycles Provide Rwandans with Transportation to Move Harvests
Heart rate through the roof, lungs burning, pedal stroke erratic. Read story.
Rape Survivor Overcomes Trauma
A Tale of Trust
I was raped in the fall. I was 17. He was my first boyfriend. Read story.
Mustache March Rocks Santa Barbara
KJEE DJs Grow Mustaches to Support MS Drive
"This gives us a really fun reason to get behind a great cause," said Jenny. Read story.
White Christmas
I Went Back East to Find A White Christmas, and This is What I Found...
The old Bing Crosby movie is cheesy, but who among us hasn’t dreamed of being in the midst of one of those Nineteenth Century Victorian Christmas card scenes? Read story.
Is Aunt Edna Worth a Sweater?
Families You’re Born Into, Families You Create, and What They Mean
Families you’re born into, families you create, and what they mean. Read story.
Ode to Kathryn Bailard and Elizabeth Drouin
Light in the Darkness
Death and the holidays don’t mix. I imagine death and her cool shadow thriving in the doldrums of January or in April, during tax season, but she should leave the holidays to the living. As the calendar flips over to November and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” takes over the radio, my thoughts usually start simmering with images of big family dinners, thoughtful gifts, too much chocolate, and great conversations with friends. Read story.
A Thanksgiving Tale
Free Avocados and a Turkey Heist
Last Thanksgiving, I didn’t have anyone to hang out with. There I was, all alone, with a borrowed car and a bottle of Popov Read story.
Baja Tales
Lobsters, Tollbooths, and a 50-Foot Jesus
Every weekend, thousands of fun-seeking Americans flood across the Mexican border into Baja, California. Some are underage college students wanting to go to bars and clubs. Others are surfers intent on exploring the many surfable nooks and crannies the Baja coast has to offer. Read story.
How the Health Insurance Crisis is Ruining Antiques Roadshow
Heirloom Deflation
I went through a phase where I just loved to watch Antiques Roadshow. I find it peppy and soothing, predictable and amazing, a wonderful amalgamation of historic America and middle America, naiveté and expertise, innocence and greed. Read story.
Coming Out and Going Straight
Gay, Proud, and Partying
While coming out of the closet is never a particularly fun activity, doing so when one is the only child of conservative, fundamentalist Christians from Orange County is, well, less fun. After enduring a few weeks of less-than-supportive comments from my dad and watching my mom struggle to make sense of her feelings, I made a mixed CD of songs that would keep me cheerful and convinced that coming out was the right thing to do and that loving my girlfriend, Jackie, was a-okay in the grand scheme of things. Read story.
Surviving the Suicide of a Daughter and a Niece
Life Forever Changed
My name is Sally. I’m a suicide survivor — two times. I lost both my daughter Linda and my niece Stephanie to suicide. Linda killed herself by jumping from the seventh-floor balcony of her apartment. She was 45. Stephanie ingested a lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs. She was 32. Read story.
The Awful Truth
Confessions of a Former Liar
I’m good at lying. Not perfect, but I’ve had a lot of practice so I’m awfully good. I’m most sincere when I lie and if anyone suspects, I always ask, “Would I lie to you?” Read story.
Rhapsody in Yellow
My Life with The Simpsons
I remember watching the first-ever episode of The Simpsons. Titled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” this Christmas-themed pilot aired December 17, 1989 — at a time when I doubt my seven-year-old brain understood most of the jokes or could have expected how this bug-eyed, surreally yellow family would figure so largely into my life. I know, I know — it’s The Simpsons, for god’s sake, but here I am making a case for the value of this TV show. Read story.
Confessions of an Insomniac
Midnight at the Oasis
It used to be that I would simply lean back at bedtime and fall sweetly into sleep, watching bright cinematic dreams unfurl until daylight touched my face. Not anymore. “A good night’s sleep” has become an elusive sort of fantasy. Read story.
The Power of Music
The National Youth Orchestra of El Salvador
On a hot, lazy afternoon, teenagers sit smoking cigarettes in a fancy café, nibbling cakes and chatting about fashion. A few blocks away, children throw jacks and ride bicycles along a filthy cobblestone alley infested with cockroaches and raw sewage. This is daily life in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, and home to these disparate worlds of luxury and desperation. With a recent civil war and increasing gang violence, the country seems to have little hope for a sustained peace. Read story.
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