Author: maryanncrum

    Let’s say you’ve been visiting Europe and now it’s time to return to the good ’ole U.S.A. You arrive at the airport with your plane ticket, your maxed-out credit cards, and five pounds of new body fat, but you’ve lost your passport. Uh, oh. What would happen?    At the very least, you’d be… Continue reading Don’t Leave Home Without It

    I was sitting in my office pondering potential topics for my next column when a deer happened to stroll right past the window.    Of course, there are deer all over the place in our neck of the woods, but they typically only venture close to our house after dark, when they dine on… Continue reading Don’t Be a Deer, Dear

    I was recently at a retreat with ladies from my church and as I looked around the room of nearly 50 women, I realized, with no small amount of astonishment and horror, that I was the third-oldest person there.    A bit earlier, I’d approached a group of ladies sitting around chatting and one… Continue reading It’s Okay to be Old

    A high school classmate of mine, Nate Tannenbaum, is a TV weatherman in Las Vegas, a real treat for the residents of that area, I am absolutely, positively sure. I follow Nate on social media and laughed out loud at something he included in his weathercast as Hurricane Florence was bearing down on… Continue reading There’s A Storm Coming

    We read every word and examined every little “jot and tittle,” looking for a catch. We knew there had to be one, but we sure couldn’t find it.    Even my husband’s engineer brain and my sleuthing skills didn’t help us spot what was wrong with the mailing informing us we’d won a $750… Continue reading Jesus Should be Seen, Not Sold

    Native-born Southerners will sometimes detect my plain vanilla accent and ask me where I’m from. Assuming they’re asking what state and not what planet, I tell them I grew up in Indiana.     Be that as it may, I think I was born with a homing device in my heart that pointed south. It… Continue reading No Place Like Home

    I recently wrote about a compulsion instilled in me by a teacher to say “rabbit rabbit” on the first of every month for good luck. I’m happy to report that Aug. 1 came and went without any “rabbit rabbits” from me, so I’m officially declaring myself free from that weird habit.    Fresh off… Continue reading Derailing the Anger Train

    “Thong should be here in just a minute,” my husband said.    “Thong?” I asked, one eyebrow raised.    “Yeah, it’s probably either a woman in a very skimpy swimsuit or an Asian man,” he quipped.    And that was my introduction to the modern phenomenon of ridesharing. If you’re not familiar with ridesharing, let me… Continue reading Trusting Thong … but not God?

    “How could anybody stand to live way out here?”    That’s what I wondered every time I visited my grandparents out in the boondocks of Parke County, Indiana. I always felt like I was leaving behind most of the things that made life worth living—friends to play with, sidewalks to ride my bike on,… Continue reading God Can Change Anyone

    Sometimes I’m astounded by the stupid things that are taking up space in my brain.    Like “rabbit, rabbit” for instance. It’s a phrase my fourth-grade teacher taught us to say on the first of every month so that we’d supposedly have good luck for the rest of the month. How’s that working for… Continue reading Rabbit Habits Die Hard