Amanda Helms

Category: Life

  • On Hope; and First Pub

    I started this post this on Tuesday, December 27, after learning about the death of Carrie Fisher. I’d hoped it’d be the last 2016 death in a long, long string of folks who, through their work and art, helped to spread joy and happiness to a lot of people. Then Debbie Reynolds, as well as Richard…

  • My passive aggressive ankle

    So last Thursday I twisted my right ankle. It’s not serious; I think it’s a mild sprain. I think this because, while I have always been able to walk on it (aside from the excruciating first minute or two immediately after twisting it), it nevertheless swelled up and turned red. The swelling is gone, now,…

  • Camille Jay Snow, July 5, 1912 to March 17, 2014

    I missed my Wednesday posting last week because, honestly, I had more important things to attend to. My grandmother, Camille Jay Snow, died the morning of March 17, 2014. She spent 101 years on this earth, and while I know she was ready to go, there are a lot of us who are going to…

  • This week, on “Get Off My Lawn!”…

    There is a small bit of passive-aggressive warfare occurring in the parking lot of my townhome complex. Background information: Each unit in my complex has one single-car garage and one marked, open-air space. Visitor parking is limited, and according to our by-laws, residents aren’t supposed to use those spaces for more than maybe 2 hours…

  • On hope

    I’ve been thinking, off and on, about hope. It’s considered buoyant, uplifting. Hope raises us up out of the pit, the anticipation of a better tomorrow, if we can just make it through today. So it’s interesting that the related word aspire means, literally, “to breathe upon.” Not, say, “to breathe upward,” which I suppose…

  • An introvert gets an ultrasound

    No, it’s not the start of a joke (though maybe it should be…). Last Friday I went to urgent care to make sure I didn’t have a blood clot in my leg. Since Tuesday, I’d been having some weird pain in my calf and right above the knee that would not abate and became pretty…

  • 3 Nemeses of curly hair

    Normally, I don’t mind my hair. I actually rather like it.   There are, however, three things I have identified as nemeses of curly hair, nemeses capable of turning a great hair day into a nightmare.    

  • Miscellany Monday Presents How to Not Make Pumpkin Gnocchi

    …in several rambling steps. 1 Foster a deep love of winter squash, pumpkin in particular, that leads to compulsive purchase of the gourds at grocery stores and farmers market, even though you receive more than enough vegetables through your CSA and will supposedly receive winter squash from the CSA in the near future. Develop collection…

  • Writerly soul searching

    What with my near-continuous lack of writing, both in terms of my blog and with fiction, I’ve been doing some writerly soul searching. Mind, the soul searching has been sporadic, a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing and the ones I’ve got not matching up with each other. On the surface, it feels like…

  • Why, as I live and breathe!

    … if it isn’t Amanda! (coughs) Hey, website. How are you? Seems like it’s been ages since you’ve graced my pages. I’d give you the exact number of months, but having to say it may cause me to have a brain aneurysm. More likely me than you, seeing as I’m the one with an actual…