My folks have our family plaid framed and hanging in their office; it's the one associated with our Scottish roots. My sisters and I are named Megan, Caitlin, and Kelly, to honor the Irish "Sweeney" that is my mom's maiden name. Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy, and I couldn't wait to make connections to the Italian olive oil coursing through my veins. For months before we landed at Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, I practiced the Italian I had learned in college. By...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
It's been about a month since I've written a LMTYT.But the month of May was a crazy one for me and the people I love the most. Major milestones and life experiences celebrated every darn day.On the first of May, I wrote myself a note, in all caps: "I INTEND TO BE FULLY PRESENT IN ALL OF THE BLESSINGS AND TOGETHERNESS." I folded it four times and tucked it into my underpinnings each morning. I didn't want to miss a single beat. My bucket is full.I have kick-started June with so many new...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
My husband and I met because of the Cincinnati Reds.At a Chicago bar near Wrigley Field where I was slinging wings, Dale walked in wearing a Reds tee. Because of the Reds (aaand his beautiful eyes), I just had to meet him. The first time he came to Cincy --with me, but, also, EVER; inexplicably, he had been a Reds fan his whole life growing up in Michigan --my Aunt Patty attempted to wipe off the Reds' wishbone "C" tattoo on his arm.She licked her thumb and rubbed, in disbelief that it was...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Mrs. Speaks definitely is not the mascot of my high school; the Ursulion is, of course. But if you ask any one of the gals who attended in the ’90s with me (and probably the ’80s and ’70s gals, as well), I suspect they too would call out our principal, Mrs. Speaks, as the preeminent symbol of the school for all those years. She never dressed up in a lion costume with a giant head, or cartwheeled down the center of a cheer tunnel; rather, she led steadily every one of us in the building. She...
4 months ago • 2 min read
My girlfriend Iris got to pick her own middle name as a kid. Michelle. Iris Michelle is her given/chosen name.That is so cool. She is as lowkey and understated as I am booming and exaggerated.She has friends all over the planet, and is quite purposeful about keeping up with all of us.Iris remembers everything, and, in a moment, she can retrieve a fun fact and a snapshot from any one of our memories together. We met when my oldest entered the same preschool as her girls. She is one of the main...
4 months ago • 2 min read
My friend Steve has an AOL email address, as he clearly was an early adopter of fresh technology. He writes to me every Saturday morning and just seeing that he’s done so prompts the turn-crackle-crash-squeak of the late-‘90s AOL in my mind’s ear. I've been a subscriber to Steve's emails for close to ten years now, but he was sending out his "quotes of the week" long before I was tuned into them.His weekend blasts are reminiscent of the best parts of the Reader's Digests that used to sit on...
5 months ago • 2 min read
The weeks before Thanksgiving, Aunt Jackie went on a Costa Rican adventure by herself. Just because she was curious about Costa Rica. She met up with a tour group of other adventurers, but she didn't know any of them before she got there. Along the way, she texted pictures and notes to everyone who loves her back home. Getting to be a part of Aunt Jackie's text thread is quite the fly-on-the-wall experience. Through her eyes, I have looked up at Volcano Chato from the foothills surrounding...
5 months ago • 2 min read
In 1991, I graduated eighth grade in June and started a new high school in September. It's probably the time I was most concerned about who was calling our house. We had two phones with long curly cords -- one in the kitchen, one in Mom and Dad's room -- and both were tethered to the walls.The fastest I've ever run in my life was when the phone rang in middle school. To catch any call coming for me, and to screen the calls coming to my sisters and parents."MacEachens' residence, Kelly...
6 months ago • 1 min read
Beth and I have a long-standing text thread that is several years of the same exchange over and over: "I saw this -- we should go.""See you then.""I'm in your driveway.""That was so fun. 💙"Completely straight forward, and always punctuated with a tiny blue heart. Beth has long legs that are invariably exposed. She wears kicky little dresses every darn day, and swears she bought them forever ago.Her hair is flippy and dippy and she cuts it herself.She doesn't fly, so everywhere she's going is...
6 months ago • 1 min read