Author Archives: Jaclynn Loibl

I don’t have writing in me tonight. I am under blankets, and a “Publish” button away from closing my eyes. I promise I’ll be back tomorrow. Asa concession, I will leave you with a couple things. First, a video of my favorite thing traveling northbound on I-5. Yellow paint markings on the roadway, and theContinue reading “Sweet and Short”

Red and green strands of light hang along the eaves of El Charro, the Mexican restaurant I sometimes walk to on my lunch break. On the drive home, as I passed it, immediately an image of our still-up 8-foot Frosty the Snowman guiltily came to mind. It isn’t four weeks past Christmas already, is it?Continue reading “Late to the Party”

I felt a little slacky on my treadmill walk. Twenty of 60 minutes in, I questioned whether I was going too easy due to my knee. I like pushing myself but couldn’t because of pain. When a shorter and older-than-me man, with 50’s style slicked-back hair and the build of an Army Ranger, stepped ontoContinue reading “Straight as an Arrow”

You know that moment right after a magician performs a magic trick and dramatically flings their cape with widened eyes, exclaiming, “Tada!”? Well, I realized today, and for a while now, that I do the same thing. Only with my friends. Let me explain. As my phone call switched from the privacy of my BluetoothContinue reading “Presto Friendo”

Highlight and delete. Every day is the same. The blog from yesterday is gone, and today another one percolates in my mind. Like the upright stainless steel one I had my morning cup of coffee from. I’m feeling insecure about the future. Part of me feels like the man with autism on the episode ofContinue reading “Point Person Please”

Sleeping on a small wooden toddler bed in the same room as Dave and me, Evelyn woke in pain from the underside of her knee. Growing pains is my guess. Once at 1am and another at 3am. After Dave consoled her (he was closer), but it took a while for me to fall back asleep.Continue reading “On the Road”

“Don’t you understand your mind is not your friend?” The repeated lyrics fill the car, an unknown song to me momentarily frees me from my deep thoughts. Thoughts that feel inescapable, a rat’s maze that hits dead ends without cheese or water in sight. What’s wrong with me? This seems to be the question guidingContinue reading “Stick it to ‘Em: A Personal Philosophy”

I don’t know if it’s the running, the new tight leggings I’m wearing to the Y, or what, but I’m feeling attractive. Like standing back in the mirror and turning my face side to side, running my hands down my sides and legs, and saying, “Yep, I got it.” I’m not always this way. ButContinue reading “Do You Think I’m Sexy?”

I felt torn. Part of me wanted a weekend away at the ocean with my friends Reid and Paul, and another wanted Dave and Evelyn to go. Being a mother and wife are newer roles for me, as has been the level of commitment I feel to them. So to just hop in the carContinue reading “My Friends: Reid and Paul”