JILL BURGIN: Joyride
'Cheating' on Mazatlan teaches life lesson
On Sunday, my family of five did what we usually do on Sundays after church: We went out to lunch at Mazatlan Mexican restaurant.
It’s fast, it’s inexpensive, the food is pretty good and we feel like regulars there. It’s usually the only meal we all eat out together, and we rarely stray from the plan.
Once in a blue moon we might get chicken from Church’s, but Mazatlan is our go-to place on Sundays.
Except for last Sunday. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
Black socks no longer faux pas
Quick question for anyone over age 25: What is the universal wardrobe choice of nerds and old men?
Black socks with shorts, right? Am I right?
Somehow along the way, though, this well-known sign of fashion atrophy became a hot fashion trend for middle-school boys. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
Road trip to Bristol baby!
I just got home from a trip to what surely must be the capital of American manliness - the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway. That’s right, I went to Bristol, baby! And I was INTO it! Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
Wingmom adds creepy tone to summer fun
I am so glad my older boys are back in school with girls their own age. Say what you will about the peer pressure in middle school. It’s much easier to deal with than the frightening new predator my family encountered this summer: The wingmom. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
Just lying in wait for CSI: Brentwood's casting call
As I lay motionless on the floor of the school building, gunshots whizzed past my head. I couldn’t turn to look, but I could hear my friend Mary, sprawled about 15 feet away, screaming in pain from a leg “injury.”
Voices on police radios got louder as the first patrol officers arrived on the scene. I could hear the dispatcher and incident commander calmly relaying instructions and updates as an officer crouched behind the bookshelf that was behind me. His response to the commander was chilling. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
No foolin': Mom dreads start of school
As usual, the school year will begin with much kicking and screaming at my house. This time, however, I’ll be hollerin’ the loudest.
Yep, that’s right. Put me down on the record. For the first time since I started having kids 14 years ago, I am dreading the start of the school. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
'Conversations with the Bug Man'
A lady named Karen with a very pleasant phone voice calls me once a quarter to schedule my pest control treatment. A few days later my bug man, James, shows up, usually early, to spray my house for creepy-crawlies. Now, James is quite chatty. The first few times he’d come, I almost dreaded it."
I mean, the man likes to talk. He gets his work done, but not without telling me at least one really good yet mildly horrifying story. The truth is, though, that he really grew on me. Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
A comparison look at 'old' UT versus new
Since it’s that time of year, I thought I’d share a few harrowing tales of my own transition to college.
My parents packed me up for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1985, with “Take on Me” by the gorgeous Norwegian band a-ha (yes, it was lower case) blaring from our car stereo -- for about two minutes until my dad won the battle of the volume knob.
Looking back, I’m amazed I got out of college alive.
Read More >>
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JILL BURGIN: Joyride
Twin teens' birthday presents challenges
My twins turned 14 recently, which means they’re now in the “difficult to buy for” category.
I guess it’s not actually difficult to buy gifts for them. They know what they want.
It’s just no fun to buy it because the “stuff” they want isn’t always “stuff.”
In our family, birthday shopping has unveiled a bit of a generational crisis because the wants of a teen in 2010 are often foreign and baffling to parents and, especially, grandparents.
Read More >>
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