Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

recent posts

about

Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Odd Jobs

  • Disappointment

      How do you deal with disappointment, and what lessons do you have to share from those experiences? That's BlogHer's Life Well Lived Getting Happy question of the week and it's had me sorting through my past, trying to remember disappointing moments in my life. It was tougher than I thought it would be –…

  • Ghosts of Fourths Past, Revisited

    I'll be celebrating our country's birthday today by earning a paycheck at the winery. How much more American is that?  But while I'm standing there listening to music, smiling and serving customers, sweating in the summer heat and hoping for at least a glimpse of fireworks, my mind will be drifting back to Fourths of…

  • “That’s the smell of money…”

    I was born and grew up in a town nicknamed Stink-a-dena on the Houston Ship Channel. In December, the blue northers pushed the scent of the paper mill onto our street. I still connect that smell with Christmas. The plants lining the ship channel paid tons of property taxes, so we had great schools. That's…

  • Working

    Mud. Lots of mud. And mosquitoes. Foremen who stole from the company. Welders who smoked pot in the weld-out yard. A warehouse worker who bragged about being high on Vicodin. A co-worker nicknamed "Moo Cow", who carried a gun in her purse before it was legal and had a tattoo when they were still edgy.…

  • A Father…

    A father gives advice  A father nourishes the body  and the soul    A father encourages A father reads A father lends a hand  A father plays    A father offers support    A father sticks close by your side   A father makes memories A father teaches  A father laughs    A father is…

  • Kids, grandpuppies, and other sweets of the week

    Nothing perks you up after a long night working a rehearsal dinner than being greeted by a bunch of kids you love, plus your grandpuppy, when your aching feet finally carry you into the house. In my case this happened Friday night, close to midnight, and the kids included my son, his fiance, her sister,…

  • Imagineers, Mountain Pinks, and Sweets of the Week

    Wouldn't it be fun to answer "Imagineer" on forms asking your occupation? I've spent the past few days filling out applications and sending my eclectic resume off with a prayer into internet-land. "Are you our Imagineer?" was the title of one job post, and I thought "Yes! Yes, I believe I am!" I'm still waiting…

  • Hello There

    Has anyone even missed me? For the past few days, I've been holed up in my office, focused in a way that's unusual for me, fueled with determination to finish editing photos from a shoot last month. (I know! Shame on me for taking so long! I do have the relatively good excuse of getting…

  • Flowers for Leontien (and other Sweet!s)

    June 3 will mark the 4th anniversary of my first blog post. I started blogging because, as I write in my "About" section up above… "Diaries, letters, and scrapbooks became journals, writing classes and essays became Long Hollow (and a few fictional works in progress…)  But come to find out, what started as an outlet for my journaling…

  • Tenacity

    Tomorrow will mark four days in a row I didn't have to report to one job or another. That's a record. When I say "job", I'm not talking about working on my book or photography, but at one of those hourly paying gigs that help feed our bank account. When I envisioned these four wide…