The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

I was sitting in the audience in a beautiful hotel in mid-Missouri, listening to the best of the best voices sing when a few states west of me, a man was plotting, planning, and waiting to carry out an act of violence that took the lives of so many young people and rocked the nation to our collective core. How is in, in this day, in 2012, that it is ok to freely purchase the assault rifles, ammunition, and guns that this decidedly intelligent yet sick young man was able to acquire?  How is it that that is ok?  It is not. President Obama was completely correct yesterday, in the dawn after the news reports trickled and then flooded across the nation, that yesterday was not a day for politics, but a day for reflection and respect for those who lost their lives; time to comfort those who experienced terror.  I had just returned home, having driven two hours, and was settling down when many people were planning a Friday night out to the movie opening, some had purchased th...

Sometimes, you can go home again. I am in my hometown for a couple days.  My son is in a jazz performance here.  This is the first time I am here and not staying at my parent’s house.  It is weird. I’m visiting as a tourist. The first thing I did after checking into the hotel and getting him settled in his conference workshop, was to search for coffee…and no Starbucks for me!  I followed my instincts down High Street – the downtown – and made it to my street.  I could not resist driving up the hill that as a kid we thought was so big.  My house that really is bigger than it looks; just looks so small on the outside! I own one that will take up two of the houses on this block.  The back yard is still huge.  I drove to the “court” where we kids used to have bike races and then drove down the hill to the “corner store” that was owned by a husband and wife.  Wow.  I was snapping and posting pictures as fast as I could safel...

One of the things I have noticed in these troubling, trying, and testing years of this Great Recession is that some people are taking a moment to reflect, to redirect, and to refocus on what really matters. My journey to that place of knowing actually happened in May 2003 when I left my corporate job, the job that we moved to Kansas City for, the job that I thought would be mine for a few years.  It was my blessing, the weight lifted off my shoulders, and my opportunity to breathe when I walked through those doors for the last time. The years following have not been easy in pursuit of my dream, but they have been rewarding and have given me reason to take pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. Writing is the air that fills my soul. Living is not complete for me unless I am expressing it through words. So I have focused on it, joined a writing group, dared to read some of my poetry in public, was commissioned to write a wedding poem, gained perspective, and kept writing. I j...

When angels take flight, unexpectedly, the rest of us are left wondering how to handle the flood of emotions, what to do to make it better, knowing we can not turn back the hands of time, can not bring them back, can not make it right. What do we do? We hug, we hold, we sit quietly, we console, we affirm our presence...and we cook. Tragedy hit twice for me yesterday. I received notice that a friend's daughter committed suicide.  Once I confirmed it from reliable sources, I flew into action.  My coffers were empty so I raced out to the coffee shop to pick up raspberry mini scones and iced coffee.  I am not sure why food was the first thing I thought of. After I returned home after absorbing the news of what would make a beautiful girl, about to enter her senior year, so suddenly and tragically take her own life, I received notice that another beautiful young woman, a college student, so loved, so full of life, was senselessly killed at an Independence Party the n...

The topic of mean girls who grow up into women who bully  in the workplace has been covered a lot in the media lately. It could be that the economy is still trying to recover and a few of these mean girls are bosses.  It could be that it was a slow news day and they needed something else about women to talk about since they've practically exhausted the GOP attack on all things vagina.  Or it could be that it is a real issue that does psychological harm and that it is a real impediment to professional progress. I tend to think it is the latter. Mean girls who grow up to be women who bully in the workplace are much more dangerous than one would think.  I should know, I had a bully boss. My last major corporate position was with a privately held company in the midwest.  There weren't that many women in management, a lot were at the junior management level, only a handful made it to marketing manager and only one or two were vice presidents.  This bo...