Stories | Mixed Metaphors

Jan 24 2026

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Retirement Journey: A Writer’s Life

Retirement Journey: Part III

The Backstory

As I begin this essay on retirement, it’s another frigid winter day in Madison, Wisconsin, my chosen home for over 50 years. Today is the kind of day to muse and reflect on life. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made, moving from my hometown of Racine to this progressive seat of state government and the University of Wisconsin.

There are some decisions we make that change the trajectory of our lives. For me, this was one of them. Others include storytelling and writing about my life, dropping out of college and gaining my education in the streets as a social activist, marrying my first love, coming out as a lesbian, recovering from alcohol, substances, and harming behaviors, my long-term lesbian partnership, the decision to live alone and thrive, and most recently, retire after working for 65 years beginning at 11-years-old.

One common theme in each of those decisions is that I crossed the threshold of an unknown journey —yet trusted in that knowing place in my gut — it was the right decision at the right time. Forever grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged A Writer's Life, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Human Becoming, Human Being, Human Doing, Madison, Recovery, Relationships, Retirement, Retirement Journey, Stories, What Have I've Been Doing?, What's Ahead?, Work

Oct 26 2025

4 Comments

Posts

The Last Closet Door: Act III

Secret Life: Clean Out the Closet

“All human beings have three lives, a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” Hamill added, “A private life is by invitation only. A secret life is nobody’s business.” — Pete Hamill

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” — Martha Popp

Today, October 26, 2025 is Intersex Awareness Day.

Background on the Series

For readers who missed the first installment of this series — I opened the last closet door to the public on October 26, 2023, Intersex Awareness Day, when I revealed — I’m intersex. I was born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). Today, again, I invite you to learn about my private and secret life.

A simple definition: Intersex is an umbrella term that describes bodies that fall outside the strict male/female binary. There are two types of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, complete and partial. My condition is the former (CAIS) and can be described as follows: Infants with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome appear to be female at birth, but do not have a uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries. Their testicles (gonads) are hidden inside the pelvis or abdomen. Breasts develop during puberty, but there is little or no pubic and armpit hair. Continue reading →

Tagged Alcoholism, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, Bodily Autonomy, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Intersex Awareness Day, Letting Go, LGBTQ, Private Life, Public Life, Recovery, Relationships, Secret Life, Shame, Stigma, Stories, The Last Closet Door, Trauma

Sep 28 2025

Posts

Holy Wisdom Writing Retreat: Meditations & Musings

On Saturday, August 9, I attended a day-long, silent writing retreat with 15 other writers. It was an extremely hot and humid summer day, spent indoors, except for breaks outdoors in the restored prairie, writing silently inside the meditative environs of the Holy Wisdom Monastery.

On Friday, the day before the retreat, it seemed that my registration from two weeks earlier may not have been confirmed. A work colleague, Becca, shared the writing retreat information with me. When I posted my weekly Facebook TGIF Update, I acknowledged that my original plan to attend the retreat wouldn’t happen. I let it go.

Instead, I decided to work at home in the writing alcove of my hideout, a 645 square foot apartment, where I live alone. Gratefully, later in the day, I learned that there were a couple of cancellations, and the retreat facilitator confirmed my attendance. Grateful. Things change! Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Father, Gratitude, Grief, Holy Wisdom Monastery, Home, Hospice, Journals & Journaling, LGBTQ, Loss, Love, Meditation, Musings, Personal Narratives, Recovery, Retreat, Stand-Up Comedy, Stories, The Writing Process, Therapy, Writing

May 23 2025

Posts

Mining for Rubies: 40 Years of Recovery

“You have no need to travel anywhere – journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.” — Rumi

As a writer and a blogger, I named my blog, Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! I found that metaphors helped me explore lived experiences, ideas, and a spiritual life, and articulate how I see and interact with the world, or journey inward in self-examination. Continue reading →

Tagged 40th Anniversary, AA, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Alcoholism, Family, Gratitude, Harm Reduction, Harming Behaviors, Journaling, Metaphors, Mining for Rubies, Mother, Outpatient Treatment, Recovery, Recovery Medallions, Relationships, Stories, Substance Use

Nov 09 2024

2 Comments

Posts

On Writing & Storytelling

“Sometimes we become what we do. I became a writer by writing.”— From Celebrating a Decade of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been drafting content and designing a PowerPoint presentation, a Community of Practice Webinar for Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialists (WICPS). I’m a WICPS in the work I do as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate for the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center. The subject of my webinar, which I’ll present later this week is, Building Peer Trust by Sharing Lived Experience. Continue reading →

Tagged Blogging, Family, Father, Grief, Legacy, Madison, Memoir, Memories, Mother, Oral History, Personal Narratives, Racine, Recovery, Stories, Storytelling, Things Change, Writing

Jul 14 2024

Posts

Goodbye to Our Childhood Home

You Can’t Go Home Again — Title of the novel by Thomas Wolfe

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world.” — Ari Berk

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou

Grief and gratitude, letting go and holding on, and things change have been themes for me this past year (and longer).

Note: This reminiscence was written in response to the prompt, Home, for my Door County Write On LGBTQ+ Writers’ Group.

Continue reading →

Tagged Brother, Death, Family, Father, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Home, Loss, Love, Memoir, Memories, Mother, Racine, Sisters, Stories, Traditions

Feb 05 2024

Posts

The Last Goodbye

We bid farewell to our father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

“Someday I’m going to write a book about our family!” — This writer as a defiant 16-year-old.

“I look forward to reading it!” — Our beloved mother

First, I haven’t drafted and posted new content for this blog since the end of October. The past three months have been a challenge and an unexpected journey. Though I’ve not written for my blog, I’ve done more writing during this period compared to what is typical. Most of it communication with bio and chosen family, journal entries, and social media posts. Continue reading →

Tagged Blatz Party, Brother, Chosen Family, COVID-19, Death, Elegy for my father, Family, Father, Friends, Funeral, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Internment, Loss, Love, Memorial, Memories, Mother, Obituary, Racine, Stories, Tag Team Sisters, Tribute to my father, Visitation

Feb 05 2023

Posts

Celebrating a Decade of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

“Sometimes we become what we do. I became a writer by writing.”— Linda Lenzke, Blogger & More

“I write to discover what I know.” — Flannery O’Connor

Ten years ago in January, I took a WordPress class at Madison College. I decided that I wanted to take the next step as a writer: design, create, and launch a blog. I had been taking a series of reminiscence writing classes from a mentor and writing coach who would later become a friend and writing partner, Sarah White of First Person Productions. Prior to the classes, I had been writing for decades, poetry, spoken word monologues, stand-up comedy, and journaling for over 30 years. The reminiscence classes were a launchpad for my memoir, Perfectly Flawed, which I’m still writing, editing, and adding content as I live and write. Continue reading →

Tagged Blog, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Films, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Home, LGBTQ, Love, Memoir, Memories, Mixed Metaphors Oh My!, Personal Narratives, Recovery, Relationships, Seasons, Stories, Writing

Jan 22 2023

Posts

It Takes a Village: Lessons Learned

“We are all in this together.” ― Hillary Rodham Clinton, It Takes a Village

“Accepting help is its own kind of strength.” ― Kiera Cass

February will be the 10^th Anniversary of my blog, Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! When I began designing it, I first needed to determine why I write. I saw it first as an extension of my journals, except I would invite others to read what I wrote. From the About section of the blog, Why I Write:

First, I consider myself a journalist, not the fact-checking, who, what, where, and when kind of reporter – but the gut-checking – why did this, or why is this happening to me or others and what can I learn from the experience – activist-essayist and memoirist. I keep journals, write memoirs and personal narratives as a record of my journey and exploration inward, allowing me to excavate and externalize aspects of my essence and experience, bringing them out of the shadows and into the light. Journaling and writing personal narratives is the process of first becoming aware, accepting and embracing what I have uncovered, followed by the charting of a new course. Continue reading →

Tagged Bio Family, Blog, Chosen Family, COVID-19, Friends, Gratitude, Hip Replacement, Holidays, It Takes a Village, Lessons Learned, Love, Pod Squad, Recliner, Recovery, Relationships, Sisters, Stories

Aug 08 2022

3 Comments

Posts

For the Love of Movies (& Memories of My Mother)

“Ever since I was a child, films, like good books, served as windows to worlds sometimes unfamiliar or far away due to distance in time or space. Movies depicted characters both fictional and historical, unraveled mysteries or documented adventures; they always engaged my emotions and attention. Some films are more familiar and familial, memoirs or morality tales that act like mirrors to my lived experience, or road maps of my internal journey. I prefer non-fiction to fiction. Most fiction, in my view, is simply reality in disguise, employed to protect the innocent and the guilty. As a memoirist I am most interested in the stories we tell and the stories untold about our lives.” – Excerpt from Stories We Tell/Stories Untold

Continue reading →

Tagged Cinephile, Family, Father, Films, Gratitude, Joanne Woodward, Lesbian, Marriage, Memoir, Memories of My Mother, Mother, Movies, Paul Newman, Racine, Stories, The Last Movie Stars, Wisconsin Film Festival

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.

Tag Archives: Stories

Retirement Journey: A Writer’s Life

The Last Closet Door: Act III

Holy Wisdom Writing Retreat: Meditations & Musings

Mining for Rubies: 40 Years of Recovery

On Writing & Storytelling

Goodbye to Our Childhood Home

The Last Goodbye

Celebrating a Decade of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

It Takes a Village: Lessons Learned

For the Love of Movies (& Memories of My Mother)