-
The influence of an aunt
I realized something recently that I really should have realized years ago – I have always had a role model of a child-free woman right here in my own family! My Aunt Linda, my mom’s sister and the woman I was named after, was child-free. I’m not sure how I missed this until now…other than the fact that our situations are quite different. While I’m child-free by choice, my aunt was child-free by chance. And thanks to my Uncle Skip, she had a six-pack of stepdaughters. So any impact on my decision to not have children would have been subconscious. We never discussed it; in fact, I don’t know the…
-
MeLinda POV: you’re going the wrong way
First of all, thank you to Lee for writing the first guest post here at Next Door To Normal. I didn’t ask him to write it. In fact, we hadn’t talked about this mishap on our road trip until he asked me to read a draft of his post. I was saving that conversation for the next therapy session :-o It was interesting to know what was going through his mind and so I decided to share my point of view during this same portion of our 2,500-mile road trip from Kansas to Mexico and back. Lee is the driver on trips and I am the navigator. We settled into…
-
Lee POV: you’re going the wrong way
Guest post by Lee – see MeLinda’s version of the same story on her post I am the driver. When we go on trips my job is to get behind the wheel and drive. So when we made our drive to Big Bend National Park I was behind the wheel for the whole drive. MeLinda’s job is navigator, restaurant locator and to sit there and look pretty. For those who know me I don’t have the greatest sense of direction but sooner or later I will find my way to the destination. MeLinda is my navigational security blanket and most times I shut down my brain when driving. When I’m…
-
Trip Guide: Columbia, Missouri
When my Mizzou Tigers left the Big 12 Conference to move to the Southeastern Conference in 2012, one of the few benefits I could see was that this could be my excuse for visiting areas of the country where I haven’t traveled much. Yet one of the obvious downsides for me is that same geography. I’m no longer in the heart of my team’s conference – my home base of Wichita, Kansas, allowed me to get to nearly all of the Big 12 towns easily. My husband, Lee, and I made one road trip during the Tigers’ inaugural SEC football season, going to Columbia, South Carolina, in September 2012. As…
-
Crossing of my streams
At the same time I started this personal blog, I started a portfolio website that is also set up on a blog platform. Over at melindaschnyder.com, I’m adding current projects as blog posts. As I get time, I’ll also be adding some past projects. The main purpose of that site is to show my photography and writing skills to potential clients and publications that I pitch. Since I get a lot of friends and family asking what exactly I do as a freelance writer, though, I thought I could cross my streams here and share those posts through this blog, too. Click on the cover image below. It’ll take you over…