I used to hate St. Patrick's Day growing up. I attended a Catholic school and we had a ton of Irish or part Irish kids and they gave me such grief every year. One year one of my nuns told us that there were two kinds of people. There were the ones who are Irish and the ones who wished they were. So there [...]

In retrospect, moving from sunny Hawaii to gloomy Wisconsin in March probably was not the best choice. But we’d quit our jobs, given notice on our gorgeous duplex, and sad goodbye to the best landlord ever. The loan was approved and it was time to start the new life I never wanted. After a final concert with the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble and a [...]

They may not have been the first three words I ever heard him say, but I probably heard him say "You wanna shot?" over a thousand times. With that face-brightening grin almost like the little boy who knows he got away with cookies from his mom's cookie jar, he'd say, "I spend more money at Teddy's Liquor than I do at the doctors." And, [...]