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Leap Day
I’m a month late….
February 29, 2024
It was just me and the youngest, 16-year-old Piper, home for that Thursday evening. My oldest daughter was giving parent-teacher conferences and would be home late. My middle daughter was in college. My husband was directing a play.
I thought it would be fun to do something different, and I was avoiding going to the gym, so Piper and I set out on a drive with her dictating directions.
(Going to the gym is good for my mental and physical health. I always feel better after I go. It’s a friendly place. So of course I try to get out of my obligation to myself whenever I can.)
“East,” Piper said, as we left Coralville. East is pretty much just Iowa City, which would be the opposite of “something different.” We turned north at Exit 246 and went to Solon, which is about a 10-minute drive up the road from Iowa City. When I first floated the idea of doing something “different,” she told me she had, somehow, never eaten a churro before. Our destination was now set as Frida Kahlo Mexican Restaurant, which I’ve passed by many times, but had never stopped.
I belong to a group on social media in which we share with others what we have had for dinner. Other people’s contributions will be things like, “Broiled salmon with a dill mustard sauce, quinoa, roasted…







