Steve Frederick piles small rocks on top of one another along the edge of the ridge at Cedar Canyon Wildlife Management Area. Photo by Irene North.
In an effort to share good stuff with folks and rein in my giddiness, I’m going to put out some videos this year of good stuff in video and written form that I’m reading and watching. Hopefully, it will help others take a break from the craziness of the world and see there is some good and cool stuff in this world.
I am a big doofus who always forgets to smile. I hate selfies, but my head is warm.
As I pushed the door open to exit Great Clips, a wave of cold bashed me upside the head. It felt like a giant ice cube had immediately enveloped my head. “Shit,” I said. “I forgot my damn hat.”
This is exactly how Hitler took control of Germany.
In 53 days.
Cheetolini is not going to take that long.
I created this video about my grandmother a few months ago for a creative nonfiction class I was taking. While I had some experience slapping together videos as a reporter at the Star-Herald, they were always “quick and dirty” to get the information out. This was my first serious attempt at making a visual essay.
Mrs. Blustein, my fifth grade teacher, brought a lady in to speak with us about politics. It was an election year and she was running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. She didn’t have to come and speak to a bunch of 11 year olds, but I was glad that she did because I found it fascinating. We were learning about how politics work and here was a lady willing to explain all to us and answer our most idiotic questions. It was 1982 and that visit set me on a path of becoming aware of what was going on in the world and how I might actually be able to help effect change.
A drawing of T-Rex by Wyatt and me. I drew the head and teeth. Wyatt didn’t like my horns and said they needed to be “more pointy.”
A notification popped up on my phone. It was from my friend, Jina. I rarely read emails on my phone, save for things that are emergencies, and this was no different. When I returned home a few hours later, I read my email, nodded my head and spoke to my monitor. Yeah, that’s right. Now you know why it takes me so long to reply to emails. I tend to talk right back at you and forget to actually type out the damned response.
I don’t think this is anything related to my trauma. It’s just how my brain works. It’s also why I have written about a dozen awesome posts in my head over the past month, but never actually typed them. Sometimes, I type them in dreams and forget to do it in the real world. Today, I’m going to start typing them out and share them here.
We’ve been on a terrible timeline since the end of 2016. If we are going to be forced to live with this shitshow, I think it should start off with a bang to make me smile. Here is my proposal on how to start 2025 and survive the next four years.
Mom and Gram, sometime in the early 1980s.
Some comments on the comments and a few other small things
By Irene
On 2025-01-23
In News
A view from a plane a few minutes after takeoff from Scottsbluff.
A few months ago, the folks who read my writings here started commenting to me via email. While that’s fine and it’s great people are reading my work, I wondered what had shifted. Why was no one posting comments anymore?
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