
Hi, I’m Jaclynn.
Welcome to a fun, everyday writing space.
I’m often nostalgic and unequivocally curious. My passion is being a mental health counselor.
I’m also a gardener, muscovy duck owner, struggling declutterer, toddler mom, avid reader, and proficient budgeter.
I love music. So expect a healthy dose of lyrics, band names, and song titles sprinkled throughout my blog.
I hope you’ll laugh, learn something, and check in occasionally.
Anyway, I’m 41 now. So whether this blog’s title is relevant or not it’s up to you.
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Now, onto the blog!

We Are Family
It’s a day when loose-leafed trash blusters about the neighborhood. A street light flashes like a red carpet to a rave but is…
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He Ain’t Heavy
I nag myself away from colorful curtains on Pinterest to write. About what I have yet to find, but like animals to the…
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Cluh Mot Toe
Hoping to coax the hiding vulnerability in myself out, I ask, “What do you want to write about?” I set aside my need…
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Intimacy’s Devilish Dance: A Poem
Shrouded with barbed wire, we trudge the land of the untouchable. Enter At Your Own Risk, the scalding caldrons seem to say, oozing…
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Butterfly In The Sky
How enamoring are butterflies; their vulnerable fluttering, expansive display of color and the jaw-dropping carwash change from dull walkers to acrobatic artists. Cinderella,…
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Mortality’s Knock
I’m building a Leggo block house with extra high walls to prevent monsters, and additional protection is “pew” guns that shoot thorns for…
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Singin’ Sweet Songs
“Good golly Miss Molly”, I say wincing my body into a bath of steamy water. I’d get thrown in jail for doing a…
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Woman Of Few Words
But I don’t want to. Write. Not tonight. A luxurious slumber from which you keep. Me at knifepoint I type. Good night. Love,…
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The Tale of The Teeniest Rubber Chicken
Eyes sunk deep in their sockets, I trudge myself to work. Last night’s D&D session 11 pm, followed by writing and yoga, led…
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No Mercy Mayhem
It’s the no-light part of the morning when I feel like a thief stealing and adding minutes to the clock. Porch, garage, and…
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A Majestic Murder
It’s a day for the birds, literally. After picking up a to-go iced coffee at the ‘bucks, guttural caws flanked me on every…
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Cat Attack
I am a messy, knotted ball of string after a client requested I mediate a conversation between them and their ex. I know…
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Dull To Dramatic: A Writing Exercise
This week’s writing exercise was to write one bland and one exciting story. I loved Houdini-ing words and laying the drama on thick…
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The King Tide Abides
Lionel Richie’s vinyl spins and spills sensually into the air. It’s too good, I think, swaying softly while allowing him to make love…
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Cheeky Pouch Belly
It’s king tide time here at the ocean, otherwise known as the highest projected tide of the year. In town, a tsunami pod…
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Saboteur de Sugar
Damn, Dave Crosby died. I wrote a post about Dave and I’s joy in seeing him live and listening to his albums at…
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I’m Late, I’m Late
It’s a feverish pitch running naked through a cornfield kind of day. One thing backed up by another until I got home –…
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Sweet Child O’ Mine
I’m a big fan of making life easier for future me. So much so that zippi-ty-do-da-daying into the unknown and bonding with discomfort…
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Sidle Up Partner
I snap off, a dead battery of the mind. With a scarecrow at the helm, all SOS alerts go unreturned. As an endless…
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Flexing Down Below
At the start of writing, the value of a piece is unknown and undefined. It’s as if a door knob turns and a…
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Potato Bug Head
You can’t unsee a rooster mounting a duck. From its hop up, to the beak tugging on the duck’s neck feathers, to the…
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Sunday Morning Coming Down
I wish I lived in a world where courtesy was dialed back to none, and a blunt, “Get away from me, you gross…
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Shock To the Heart
My excitement at being chosen out of ten others for the cutest Pottery Barn magazine rack on Buy Nothing means my attention was…
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Eff Off Fear
I center myself, take a breath, look around the room, and think, Is there anything I need? Music, I need music. So I…
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Every Dog Has Its Day
I wrote down three ideas for this post, then deleted them all. I don’t want to write about how you should have a…
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Existential Sock Talk
Holy cow, there are fantastic corner wooden plant stands on Amazon. I’m a fastidious perfectionist, so I’ll scour every review and photo of…
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Moth Testicles
I’m stalling. Or rather, cleaning, adjusting blinds, and turning up and down the heat. In 22 minutes, the virtual conversational Spanish class I…
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Houseplant Arousal
I’d love to write long-form; informative, entertaining, and creative pieces. Tapestries that interweave and intersect cleverly and stimulatingly. I want the reader to…
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Magnetic Zombie
I shoot up my hand but before the words touch the air, I’m shhhh’d. At the pulpit is the critic rambling and spitting…
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Struggling Orchid: A Poem
I deleted a post. I tried to delete you. Like a Jack in the Box, time winds a memory to pop. Out of…
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Learning To Fly
A dismembered wing of a mallard duck my Dad killed hunting housed in a plastic bag is what my second-grade self brought to…
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Scent Of A Woman
Out of concern about the partner of a client feeling ganged up on (this happened previously to them in couples therapy), I wonder…
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I Got A New Attitude
How do we change our have-to’s to want-to’s? I’m taking my resolutions slow and steady in the spirit of starting and ending 2023…
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Tiptoe Through The Tulips
During covid, seed-exchange programs popped up in communities to share resources. I only found out they existed when I read an article on…
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Happy New Year!
With Mr. Rogers-like exuberance, Dave stands and says, “What do we want to do today?!” Then, answering his question says, “Are we doing…
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Feeling Badly
At the hockey game, I felt compelled to write the quirks of the guy seated next to me. “Didn’t practice the power kills…
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Desert Dwellers
Three outdated satellite dishes sit on property underneath powerlines, trucks’ hoods are rusted and propped open, and there are a smattering of unworking…
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What’s Up, Duck?
I’m seated next to the most talkative person at the Kraken game. He’s the guy that gets four or five drinks in him…
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Water Over The Bridge
I rolled down the car window to let the security guard know the last name of the people’s whose home I’m visiting. Here…
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I’m A Loser Baby
At the end of the second 5-Minute Bluey story, inspiration for this post hit. I contemplated running for my laptop and spilling the…
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Get Out Of The Water!
Dear Jaclynn, Write now because this is your time. I prompt myself, but it doesn’t work. Nothing is worth writing about tonight. Nothing…
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Talking Shmalking
Like clockwork, apps and calendars gently remind us of our home maintenance tasks. They do for me, anyway. In the Northwest, that means…
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Merry Xmas Ya Filthy Animals
Hearing fuck repeatedly fly from the mouth of my 3-year-old as she struggled to put the Frozen II Monopoly lid box on made…
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Excuses, Excuses
I suck at texting. I type a sentence, question my intentions, re-write it or don’t, then in a fit of stress, say “eff…
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Shortiest Day
I got lost in a circular thinking whirlpool with a client yesterday. It’s happened before, and when it does, I feel like Alice…
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It’s Not Always Sunny
“Do you think I take you for granted?” Over a homemade spaghetti and salad dinner tonight, both Dave and I answered yes to…
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I Dream Of Doughnuts
Needing four points to beat my opponent in Fantasy Football and watching my wide receiver score zero points in the first half left…
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Date Night
When going up steep hills, our Chevy Volt revs and growls unsatisfyingly. I think it gets stuck in gear, unable to shift into…
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Sugar And Spice
I remember reading that mastery comes after 10,000 hours of doing something. I know I mastered poker dealing, but what else? Gardening. Counseling.…
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Head In The Clouds
I’m the narrator of my life. I don’t hide. I’m like Stephen King, I write the book and then put myself in the…
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Litter Of Critters
Seeing the evidence of her disdain in session, panicky eyes, scrunching face like she’d eaten something rotten, and the defensive tone she used,…
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Based On True Events
I have missed three days of blogging this year; January 1st and 2nd (due to the blog’s nonexistence) and January 14th, my 40th…
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Flinging Things
“Just one more L-shaped sectional,” I tell myself, but upon hearing the thought, I stop. I know the slippery slope of the couch…
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The Giraffe: A Writing Exercise
You’re sitting at a bar with a giraffe. What are you discussing? What are you drinking? What is the giraffe drinking? What’s the…
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Wishing: A Poem
Her fear is like a river that’s escaped its banks, far from under her control. She breathes with relief when the pungi yields…
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Vroom Vroom!
I fed Evelyn edamame. “Eddy Money, I want more peas!” That’s please for all of you who don’t speak 3-year-old, and her trying…
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Cutting Wheelies
I’m walking laps on the upstairs track at the YMCA. Passing me on my left is a rotund man whose girth might disqualify…
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A Game Of Chess
Sometimes I have fun at work. Today I brought Klask, a mini version of air-hockey, to play with my 3 pm. I know…
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It’s A Rap (On The Floor)
A stop by Subway reminded me of the summer I ate for free there. A six-inch roasted chicken breast on Italian herbs and…
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Window Shopping
I returned a too-big-for-me pair of Vans shoes at a sports store connected to a mall. Mall. When was the last time I frequented…
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As It Seems: A Poem
Why am I such a miserable fool? The mutterings echo off the toilet bowl-stained limestone. I dream of freshly laundered linens and rose…
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Hula Guinea Foul
Sudsy snow blew from second-story windows in the town of Seabrook this evening. Dave should have kept his mouth closed, but he couldn’t…
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Ostrich Run
It’s a random winter night, cold to the point of freezing and mundane as a game of solitaire. A couple of beers, “Frozen…
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The Ethics of Ethics
To satisfy Washington state’s licensure requirements, I must complete 36 hours of continuing education credits every two years, six of which must be…
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How To Dating App
I met my husband on a dating app. “Once” is the app’s name; it claims it’s a “slow dating app.” And it is.…
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Ready, Set, Grow!
What’s next for this blog in 2023? I don’t know. And I can’t say because a song from “Frozen” is stuck in my…
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Oh, Behave!
I woke from the most fantastic Groundhog Day-like dream. In it, I kept bumping into someone that made me feel weak in the…
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Keep Your Hands To Yourself
The farty smell in the laundry room, which I solved last week but didn’t, is no more. In bending to clean behind the…
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Unforgettable Pockets
The thing about pockets, especially with other peoples, is that they are forgettable. Today at the holiday market at a nearby farm, Evelyn,…
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It’s a day of being in and out of consciousness. A fever of 101.2 and a headache that after three baths, twenty-six naps…
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The Invisible Me: A Poem
With the stroke of a hand, light betrays dark. The monsters slink under beds, and the rooster slices silence with its screams. All…
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Bada Bing, Bada Boom
“I don’t like ’em. It’s not only the mush, but the firm. Like, pick a side, ya know?” A Tony Soprano-like client’s negative…
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I’m Late, I’m Late
“I don’t need it to freeze. Driving in at four AM would not be cool” The white-aproned man sets the roast beef on…
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Cliffhangering
I need a coffee recall button. After returning to the playroom twice, and the upstairs bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen thrice, I was still…
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Young Love
In third grade, my boyfriend was Trevor Gibson. When he played wall ball at recess, I played ponies on the four-square court. Ponies…
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Burning Down The House
“Your cabin is torqued.” James, our contractor-turned-friend, told Dave and me pre-covid about our ocean getaway. Maybe, he said, it’d collapse if he…
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Quittin’ Time
I’m distracting myself because writing feels like a job. A job I don’t want and one I have to wake up at 4…
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Somewhere With You
Heading to Toronto, riding the rails. Strands of lights under eaves brighten the shadows. I step into the light of which I’m not.…
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Tease The Day
On the drive home, my mind replays the countless stories of clients. It’s hard to tell which stories are my own. With the…
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A Spot Of Tea?
The juice supplying creativity amounts to barely a drop; if served in a saucer, a mouse would say, “What kind of restaurant is…
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A Fraudulent Smile
Don’t try selling me anything unless you’re a cute little ringlet-headed child with a brown vest, red hat, and a box full of…
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She’s A Small Wonder
A hard parenting night, the building up of work to-do’s, and a blank mind equally block the imagination’s flow. Right now, it’s a…
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Belly Of The Beast
Dave’s got a light strapped to his head, a cigar in hand, and a baby monitor and lighter in his pocket. Obviously, he’s…
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Nitwit Lice Lessons
I pushed six wheelbarrows full of browning and yellowing fallen leaves into the slippery, muddy muck of the duck pen. Not often do…
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Show ‘Em, Don’t Tell: A Writing Exercise
Choose one of the following: “Describe the gunky stuff that gets caught in the basket at the bottom of the sink. Don’t use…
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Puddly Boots
I have a last-minute cuddly buddy in bed with me; messy red-headed, milk-guzzling, four days away from three-years-old, Evelyn. She had a belly…
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No Escape From Reality
I’m very against bragging. I’d stand on a pulpit, wave my fist and lament how doing so is a failing to our most…
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To The Moon!
In the recesses of my mind, insecurity lurks that you’ll bore of me – how can you not?- and toss me aside like…
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Namby Pamby: A Poem
I write out of spite, not delight. A kite? I’d fly it to the stars. Or Mars. It’s up to the string—a thing…
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Walk This Way
Removing the television from the living room was one of the best decisions Dave and I made. Without a coffee table, there’s just…
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Thar She Flows
This is a day described as “awful” by a family member. The skies are letting loose, rain, rain, and more rain. On my…
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Red Hot Venti Preppers
A single tissue flaps in the wind, waving hello at me from the corner of the room. The air is on, and I’m…
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Queen Of The Road
There are twenty-three minutes until my next session. It’s with a couple that lives in their car. The summer was good to them,…
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Tree Fallin’
“I need to put water in my belly,” Evelyn said, hiccupping and running to find her glass. Remembering what my Mom used to…
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Take It Slow, Joe
“The Gentle Art of Loving Your Trauma Clients” is a continuing education course that appeared in my inbox this morning. Ninety-six percent of…
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My friend, Peter
It’s the usual “Talk?” text–and since I had a minute yesterday–I called and headed for a place on the back porch to chat.…
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Pumpkin Party
My body is abuzz from all the activity, and now that the final guests have exited, I can take a few moments and…
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Sex, Drugs, Cock N Roll
Nailed it! This post’s image, my friends, is of the oreo mummy balls Dave, Evelyn, and I made. Now, please don’t go on Google…
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Money For Nothing
I’m in the bath, watching a candle as it casts shadows on the wall. I am transported to a distant future after seeing…
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I love your writing.
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Geez, Chuck. I’m blushing.
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abortion…it takes a very courageous woman to admit those two difficult decisions. I could not be any more proud of you other than I know your Mom would have been. we all make mistakes, and should’nt have to pay for them with our lives and futures. Evelyn is the luckiest, to have you as her Mom,someone who was ready to love her💖
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Thank you Kim. Your words mean a lot to me.
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