By WENDY HODGE A package came in the mail today. Thriftbooks has sent me the book that’s been on my wish list for quite a while now. The package is oversized, and sealed so securely that it takes both hands and a chainsaw to finally open it. And there it is — The...

By WENDY HODGE This morning, before I opened my eyes, I heard thunder. I love that sound, especially when I am safe in bed and so comfortable that I never want to move. That deep rumble that reminds me there is a wild, wide world out there. It never fails to make me...

By WENDY HODGE “By my next birthday, I will be a certified chimney sweep.” I can honestly say that’s not a sentence I ever thought I would utter. But yesterday my best friend’s dad asked me how my new job is going, and that was my answer. Through an unexpected and...

By WENDY HODGE My very first apartment, when I was a freshman in college, was sparsely decorated in what my roommate and I referred to as “up-scaled curbside/Goodwill treasures.” It was eclectic, which is polite for tacky. But it was ours. We worked hard to pay the...