"Seeing good people do good things made me believe that I wasn’t entirely wrong to imagine that people in our country want a better life for everyone. Not the majority, but at least a strong number."
"Seeing good people do good things made me believe that I wasn’t entirely wrong to imagine that people in our country want a better life for everyone. Not the majority, but at least a strong number."
For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Torrey, Utah to visit my in-laws and my mom and her partner and his son. Torrey is a six-hour drive from Flagstaff. It would be four hours, but Escalante National Monument, beautifully, forces me to drive east through Kayenta, then Monument Valley, up the Moki Dugway toward Bears Ears and then around the winding road that crosses the Colorado River and skirts the dwindling Lake Powell or west through Page, Kanab, along the Virgin River through Mt. Carmel, Orderville, Glendale toward Panguitch and Circleville where I look mournfully toward the massive barracks that house so many of the pigs we eat. Then, I drive toward Kingston and Koosharem Reservoir which dams Otter Creek. I am certain there are otters there. Or there will be again and I will find them.
After turkey day, we go fishing. Even I, a fisherman who has never caught a fish, am rigged up with a five-foot pole and my father-in-law’s boots. I’d forgotten to bring my own. When we left Flagstaff, which is usually a similar temperature as Torrey since both towns sit at nearly 7,000 feet elevation, it was 55 degrees. Torrey, further north and often bent windy by a different jet stream, was colder. And it had snowed. My father-in-law’s boots were too big, but waterproof. My running shoes were not.
My former student went to see the Subhumans in Phoenix late last fall. I’ve loved this punk rock band since I was twelve-years-old. Their dark point of view satisfied me. Their song “The Cradl… Read moreImpossible individualism: Us fish must swim together
I didn’t mean to fall in love with Brine Shrimp. In 2017, for my birthday, my friend Angie gave me an ecosphere—an egg-shaped glass enclosure in which three brine shrimp swam among oxygenating… Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: Brine shrimp
I have a confession to make. I adopted two new kittens. After Zane the cat got lost last April, I couldn’t stop missing him. Zane, half Maine Coon, half koala bear, was my person. He slept bet… Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: Impossible Hospitals
On June 30th, I took a trip with my friend Beya and our youngest boys to Clear Creek Reservoir to paddleboard. The wind was strong. The water was murky. The sun was hot. We managed to make it … Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: Impossible College
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. The nouns in that sentence define nearly all of my writing. My hometown, paradoxically named, shaped my aesthetic. I write from a first-person point of view… Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: One and done
Newly elected governor Katie Hobbs, in her inauguration speech, vowed to repeal the universal vouchers, officially known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) â€� double-speak for if you’re… Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: Boot Straps
It was precisely 97 minutes ago that we wrapped up Spring Semester 2022. By the time you’re reading this, it will be September 1 and Fall Semester 2022 will be well underway. They say there’s … Read moreNicole's Impossibly Possible Ideas: A wormhole summer
