THE HOMENESS OF CHANGE

Ask any MK where home is and you’ll see an impressive display of pre-syncopal symptoms: the eyes roll back, sweat beads form, and sometimes an involuntary twitch appears.  For most of my life, I’ve answered the question with a vague “it’s complicated” met by raised eyebrows and loss of interest.  More recently, I’ve perfected a […]

BONDAGE

[NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line.] How ’bout a little quiz?  Which of these are NOT true statements? There are 2,800 Tim Hortons donut shops in Canada Canada is basketball’s birthplace Uncle Tom’s Cabin (of the famed slave novel) was […]

DYSMORPHIC RHINO

[NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line.] Warning:  This one is…weird.  I may be suffering from acute humidity-induced something-or-other… ******* It’s a day that comes around every two years.  It’s pretty easy to predict its arrival, really.  The birds stop singing.  […]

GRACIE-POOH STUDEBAKER

[NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line.] Gracie-Pooh Studebaker is my new best friend.  She’s dependable, knowledgeable, longsuffering and objective to a fault.  That’s her good side—kind of like saying that Rosie O’Donnell is funny and engaging, while omitting “belligerent,” “cantankerous,” […]

CHANGELING

[NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line.] I’ve just come home from an evening walk on the beach.  I’m not usually a beach-person.  I like to say it’s “too sunny, too sandy and too bathing-suity” for me.  But I was lured […]

THE END GOAL (An Open Letter)

[NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email tod writing “Subscribe” in the subject line We’d been planning the surprise for weeks—I’d fly in to Detroit from Germany, spend the night in a motel, then take two more flights to Manchester, NH, where I’d surprise my nephew, Corbin, the day before […]

AMBIVALENT ALLEGIANCE (GRAD)

[See end of post for subscription instructions] As I write, there are cars honking in the street outside, all decked out in flapping German mini-flags.  Bars and restaurants have installed their temporary projection TVs and throngs of rabid fans are readying themselves for kick-off with giant glasses of beer and enough fatty food to give […]

RULES, SCHMULES?

(All photos are of the final choir concert that took place yesterday.  I can’t adequately express to you how much joy and reward this group of 57 students has given me.  I’ve been blessed to teach them, coach them and experience them…) I’m frustrated!  There are just four days left before grad and, as usual, […]

BEFORE AND AFTER

(NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line.  You’ll receive a brief email every time a new blog entry is posted.  How easy is that?!) To honor the nearly 20 years I’ve worked at BFA, the school recently gave me 80 euros […]

OF SOCCER, COWS AND FOG

[At the bottom of this post, a video that will warm up your chilled body and brighten up your mind!] Welcome to BFA’s final home game.  Sunny, warm, cheery, soccer’y… WRONG! Welcome to mid-May in Germany, visibility nearly zero, temperatures hovering around 40 degrees (7 Celcius), when spectators wrapped in blankets wait for an hour […]

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