The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

I hate bullies. Honestly hate people who use fear and intimidation to try to control people, to try to elevate themselves in their thirst for power. Schools have them, homes have them, businesses have them, governments have them. They disrupt people's lives, all are destructive and kill the spirit. Senator Elizabeth Warren is standing up to the white male elected bullies who try to intimidate, manipulate, and control. Writers across the country are speaking out against Justice Scallia, a white male bully in his statement that voting rights are "racial entitlements." White female managers can sometimes be the worse bully as we have seen with Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. What is it with them? Girls - even the grown up ones - use gossip, exclusion, and things like rolling their eyes and dismissive tones to bully other girls. Boys use physical aggression - even the grown up ones. Economic and emotional are the worse because they are often hidden and most t...

I am not perfect, far from it. I have my flaws.  I am stubborn, I am passionate, I am selfish.  I am human. I know my imperfections sometimes flow up to the surface and make me hard to live with, so says my husband and probably silently says my children. For example, I can not stand clutter.  It make me physically ill.  And I am married to a man who is less than organized and even when I have washed, folded, and put his clothes in a place where he can get them, he still throws his suits on the chair, leaves dirty socks all around, and has more papers than there are trees.  My beautiful daughters are the messiest creatures I have ever met in life, my little fashionista leaves a mountain of clothes and I can rant and rave, and they are still there.  I turn into a mean momma at those moments. In my imperfections, I also am passionate about the people in my life, about being authentic, and living a full life.  I learned in over 16 years with my hus...

My father's words ring true in my hears, he is turning over in his grave, and the hard work of an entire generation is being dismantled one-by-one. What happened to the Gen Xers and Boomer IIs/Jones Generation (born after 1960) that they (the ones of the Caucasian persuasion) are so uncaring, unfeeling, and unknowing of the history that has plagued this country? State-after-state tried to disenfranchise millions of primarily black and latino Americans from the hard won right to vote.  1965 was the passing of the Voting Rights Act.  One lifetime, someone not yet 50 was born when this law was passed.  The 14th and 15th  Amendment, Section 5  and the Voting Rights Act, Section 5 is up for argument in everywhere from Shelby County, Alabama to the Supreme court.  The very place where the newly elected Governor declared, "segregation now, segregation, segregation forever." Indiana and other states are invading, literally, the bodies of women in ef...

To say that it is cold outside is an understatement. To say that the big snow and freeze coming to Missouri is going to be epic is also an understatement. To say that I wish I was back on the Gulf Coast is an enormous understatement. I wanted to remember the warmth so I wrote a post this morning on my local Patch.  It is full of photos and yearning for a week ago when I was walking on the white sand beaches and taking in the sights that these tired-of-winter midwestern eyes had a hard time describing that particular shade of blue. We can look up and count the days, let February go out in all her freezing glory, and pine for warmer days. It will be the heat of July soon enough, in the mean time, enjoy some Gulf Coast Memories.

I had the pleasure of spending five days down on the Gulf Coast during Mardi Gras. The sun was shining and the water, from afar, was quite blue and peaceful.  It was a refreshing change of pace from the buttoned up, cold, and frenzied pace I've been running for the past few weeks. We walked along the beach, peaked into quaint shops, and simply slowed down, something that is commonplace in that part of Alabama. Orange Beach, Point Clear, and Fair Hope are the three places we spent the majority of our time and the two of the three places I would definitely consider as writing havens.  I learned that a lot of the people in Fair Hope simply did not leave, just stayed there and kept writing, drawing, and creating because the community was so welcoming to creative types. When we returned to Missouri and hit the ground running, barely unpacking, my mind kept taking me back to the beach and the calm appreciation of the world we experienced.  I thought about what we could ...

Writing, working in coffee shops, thinking, all part of the plan this morning when I set out to find the new local coffee shop opened in the city's north side. I am not from here, in that I did not grow up here, left at the ripe old age of seven and didn't return for decades.  I need GPS and before that, Mapquest, to guide me anywhere outside the nine-mile-confines of my west county suburb. Grand, I know that boulevard, it houses my late grandmother's church, it runs past both highways that take me east, and it goes to Powell Symphony Hall.  Finding something near Grand Center shouldn't be that hard, I thought, even as Chronicle Coffee, didn't show up in any local searches on my phone for coffee shops. I had a full tank of gas and my passenger seat overloaded with all my work for the day.  It was to be a good long morning of undistracted work and hopefully, good coffee. Driving past Delmar found me in a very different St. Louis. We read about what decaying...

My husband and youngest son I've been shopping for a camera every since the Kirkwood Children's Chorale Holiday Concert when, in the excitement of the college student's return home, my  husband and I fumbled the pass as we were trying to take photos in the beautiful surroundings.  The result...this is the last photo of my Canon, 14 megapixel, 12mm zoom digital camera...handsome, aren't they? The hunt for a replacement began, three years after the purchase of the other one, and unwilling to spend another $300, I started looking.  In the meantime, my husband used his really good smart phone to take photos of the kids during the holidays.  I, on the other hand, was image-less, and quite sad about it. Target, where I live, has a cute little photo department with helpful employees.  They had a Nikon on sale for $99 about three or four weeks ago and I started eyeballing it.  It turned out the one on display was the only one they had and they couldn't sell...