Kelly Z Conrad

http://kellyzconrad.blogspot.com

You could call me a recovering news junkie. Since about 2015, I have struggled with the daily choice of being informed and knowing what’s going on in the world vs. preserving my sanity. I’ve learned I must choose; I cannot have both. I envy people who never watch the news or read a news website…

It’s the age-old dilemma that’s been pondered since the beginning of time: how early is too early to put up Christmas decorations? You know, of all the crazy things going on in the world, I’m often astounded by what privileged, first-world people will spend time and energy debating. But every autumn, the question pops up…

The first thing you notice is that the building itself doesn’t look like anything around it. Situated in a small downtown that looks as though its heyday was the late Victorian Era, the big tan box with the big foggy windows was designed by architects in California. The windows all around were, in theory, supposed…

When I was in grad school, studying for my master’s in mental health counseling, one of my professors told us: “In any given profession – whether it’s doctors, truck drivers, teachers, whatever – about 50 percent are not good at what they’re doing. Don’t be in the bottom 50 percent.” This same professor told me…

My grandfather always sat at the head of the table during meals shared by my extended family. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, he was the patriarch that all my aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered around. He was a small man, gentle and unassuming. Raised in a conservatively religious family, he was a solid Christian and lived what…

Sometimes I have to laugh at the friend requests I receive on Facebook. Not because they’re random people from across the globe who couldn’t possibly know me, but because they’re people from the area in which I grew up and I guess they recognize my maiden name, see where I attended high school, and think…

It amazes me how so many people who are otherwise amicable and kind to their fellow humans find joy and vengeful satisfaction in being abusive to telemarketers. I’ll be the first to admit that telemarketers are beyond annoying. They call at the most inconvenient times, and worse, they can be the point person of a…

The other night I stumbled upon a movie on YouTube that I hadn’t seen since I was a young girl. The 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein production of Cinderella, which aired on TV once a year beginning when I was in elementary school. A then-unknown 18-year-old Lesley Ann Warren played the title role, with Stuart Damon…