Category Archives: Avoiding My Writing

Doubt (Pub Cheese Edition)

Posted on August 20, 2020 by PB Rippey

I ferried my laptop to the kitchen table and brought up my novel-in-progress. A poppy-orange dawn filtered through window blinds and the coffeemaker hiccupped sighs and I relished being the only human in our house awake, tapping the pg dn … Continue reading →

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Mask America

Posted on July 22, 2020 by PB Rippey

A couple of days ago I shopped the web for masks, something I swore I wouldn’t do way back in March, right after my son’s school switched to online education, after I’d purchased non-medical grade masks for my family, and … Continue reading →

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Spring Clean (April Edition)

Posted on April 28, 2020 by PB Rippey

Despite being homebound for over a month, a month’s worth of house cleaning occurred on 1 sunny April day, a spontaneous, madly executed group effort by myself, my husband and our tween, as though houseguests were arriving, when really we … Continue reading →

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Did I Or Didn’t I

Posted on April 23, 2020 by PB Rippey

UPDATE: Coupled with new findings this week in Santa Clara County, where the medical examiner confirmed that California had the earliest deaths from COVID-19 — on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17 — the new information suggests a national epidemic was … Continue reading →

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SCBWI WRITERS DAY 2020

Posted on February 4, 2020 by PB Rippey

UPDATE: EVENT CANCELED (but you probably already know this) Stay safe, self-quarantine as much as you can, take deep breaths, don’t watch too much news, CALM is a great meditation app, hydrate, catch up on reading the tower of books … Continue reading →

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O JOKE! (Popsicle Stick Edition)

Posted on October 24, 2019 by PB Rippey

And here is a popsicle stick I recently uncovered. In all my many now-I’m-older-than-absolutely-everyone-even-Paul-Rudd years, I had no idea such joke sticks existed. Very nice! As long as it’s just a joke and not a fortune. 🙂

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Octopus Garden

Posted on February 8, 2019 by PB Rippey

Because of my love for the ocean and its creatures, I aspire to hosting this kind of ocean-themed party (thus avoiding my fear of scuba diving, while still having a great time, and without attracting great white sharks–no matter their … Continue reading →

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Hunting

Posted on October 29, 2018 by PB Rippey

230am, the dog’s nose a wet Q-tip on my ear, his drunk-carny’s breath. I rise, stumble to the patio door, let him out. Waiting, I realize my right foot is wet. I panic:  blood? Cat vomit. I stumble to the … Continue reading →

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How It Is

Posted on May 2, 2018 by PB Rippey

There is only finishing my middle-grade novel. Getting my son to school, helping him finish his science project and get it to school; hurtling towards summer–school, science projects, math tests, helping at the school book fair, end-of-school-year requirements and the … Continue reading →

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#MeToo

Posted on October 16, 2017 by PB Rippey

I didn’t look at Twitter for 24 hours a few days ago. #ROSEARMY I posted a bit on FB. #metoo I switched FB from public to only friends. #WTH”FRIENDS”??? I’ve been reading FB and Twitter in bed before turning out … Continue reading →

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SCBWI WWR 9/2017

Posted on September 13, 2017 by PB Rippey

Me–prepping for the upcoming SCBWI Working Writer’s Retreat:     Fortunately I got in, thanks to iphone alerts, Alexa/Echo alerts, the wall calendar with a particular date circled so thickly in red it could never become invisible, no matter the … Continue reading →

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116 Degrees (T-Rex & Gladioli Edition)

Posted on September 3, 2017 by PB Rippey

Early days of 4th grade for the boy coincide with consecutive days of triple digit heat for valley dwellers, a box turtle possibly on a hunger strike because I won’t put her in her outdoor arena in triple digit heat, … Continue reading →

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Where I Discovered Poetry Last Weekend

Posted on May 25, 2017 by PB Rippey

Here: And here: How my family inspired me last weekend? Via this: And this: And this: What it feels like to finish a pre-mini-vacation writing goal and move to the next? This: Came down with the flu upon returning from family shenanigans. However, today … Continue reading →

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Step Away From All Chariots (Burning Edition)

Posted on December 2, 2014 by PB Rippey

CONTENT WARNING: Vague to extreme silliness–and back again. Since 1990 I’ve been visiting Ana S. every other month, less when I was younger and single and living on a leaky  sailboat and a semi-working actress with miracle hair never listing towards … Continue reading →

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Screens

Posted on November 15, 2014 by PB Rippey

Staring at  my writing, I heard what I thought was our younger cat pulverizing the bedroom window’s screen, as he does when he’d like to be let inside, despite the little Hobbiton upside-down-U’s we had cut in pertinent doors, just for … Continue reading →

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Mornings Become Them (Birds Edition)

Posted on June 20, 2014 by PB Rippey

615am–I get out of bed to let the dog outside and get back in bed forgetting to let the dog back in and he barks and I shoot out of bed not wanting the dog to wake the first grader … Continue reading →

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All Schedules Thrown

Posted on June 12, 2014 by PB Rippey

And, suddenly, for a week, until summer camp started, the newly ex-Kindergartner and I were face to face over our morning pancakes, not an elementary school deadline in sight. “Let’s go to the beach!” he suggested. We did. “Museums!” We went there, … Continue reading →

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I-5 Pretty

Posted on April 24, 2014 by PB Rippey

In a previous post I regaled our drive from Los Angeles to parts further Northeast known as Tracy, Stockton and Sacramento. Namely, that interminable length from the end of the grapevine to whatever that KABOOM exit is that has Corral in … Continue reading →

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Spring Break Snoozing (Wide Awake Edition)

Posted on April 18, 2014 by PB Rippey

During this luscious week of no school for the Kindergartner, we snooze well. Except when we are awakened from chasm-sleep somewhere between 2a.m. and maybe 4:30a.m.—after the bars have closed, but before the rooster across the alley busts its lungs—after we’ve … Continue reading →

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Walking to Floats (SoCal Edition)

Posted on January 3, 2014 by PB Rippey

Rose Parade Floats Viewing, January 2nd: I walked my son several blocks down a typically—for Pasadena—vast and nicely swept boulevard to another major boulevard (wider than the Rio Grande and as sungleamy in our December heatwave) mobbed by people like us … Continue reading →

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Food Glorious Food

Posted on November 13, 2013 by PB Rippey

Speaking of bon bons, I think I’ll switch to madeleines. But stick with coffee, not tea. For now. Coffee served in a teacup? Even better. The Telegraph is featuring 10 Great Meals in Literature. A fun little slideshow. Especially the Dickens … Continue reading →

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Chirp

Posted on August 6, 2013 by PB Rippey

The colony of house finches thriving in the trees outside our bedroom windows begins the chirping frenzy around 530/6am and they never fail to wake me up—but I beat them to their cacophony this morning, fueled into consciousness by thoughts of Big … Continue reading →

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Angst (Cheese & Strawberries Edition)

Posted on July 3, 2013 by PB Rippey

When you man your bookshelves for hours, reading first pages because you are maddened by your own first pages and can’t recall how to begin a story or a novel without every palabra jumping out at you with a buzzer sound … Continue reading →

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Heat Talk (107 Degrees Edition)

Posted on June 30, 2013 by PB Rippey

Everyone in prone positions, some bodies perpendicular to others, some just out there on their own, spanning that one corner of living room rug, some sprawling underneath the chaise longue I try to endure as my son makes mud pies, the … Continue reading →

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Quote For The Weekend (Seriously Late Edition w/Rabbits)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by PB Rippey

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. —Anne Frank We tend to rotate which charities we give to monthly. Save The Children often tops the list. Also the Mae Tao … Continue reading →

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