“Two North” is a story about a Christmas when I was in grade school during a period when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person […]

“Two North” is a story about one Christmas when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ever has in my […]

Well, the 2016 Eclectablog Fundraiser Party is now in the history books. It was an incredible evening with a room packed with around 100 blog readers & fans and progressive leaders from a wide variety of organizations. Here are some photos taken by Anne of the evening.

That lady in the photo is my mom, Jacki Savage. If you’ve read my story “Two North”, already know a bit about her. She was born Jacqueline McCann and was at the top of her high school class taking Latin and basically shooting the lights out academically when she got pregnant with me and dropped out of school. She was […]

“Two North” is a story about one Christmas when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ever has in my […]

“Two North” is a story about one Christmas when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ever has in my […]

Although we held our 10-year Blogaversary party last Thursday on May Day, today is the actual anniversary of my very first blog post. Yup, that’s me. With hair. My first blog was on a site called Modblog and you can view my very first, utterly lame post HERE. If this doesn’t get your attention, I could … … just… … […]

Twelve years ago I was living in St. Louis working for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I was single with two dogs and a parrot, and spent my free time going to bars and listening to music and watching sporting events with family and friends. I hadn’t even met Chris at that point. Now, 12 years later I work for […]

Spreadin’ the Eclectagospel… If you are in the Macomb County area, Anne and I will be speaking to the North Macomb County Democratic Club this evening. During the talk, we’ll be showing a 30-minute slideshow of Anne’s amazing photos and she’ll have her historic Obama photomosaic posters on sale, as well. The event starts at 7:00 p.m. at the UAW […]

“Two North” is a story about one Christmas when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ever has in my life.

My wife’s cousin, an editor (e.g. “Flags of Our Fathers”), has convinced me to use it as the launching pad for a book about life with my mom. I have yet to find the time to do this but that book is still inside me and waiting to get out. It’ll happen.

I offer this story to my friends here at Eclectablog on Christmas as a tribute to my mother, a woman who went from a pregnant sixteen-year old to an executive for the Chrysler Corporation in the short span of twenty years.

Much of who I am today is because of her and the lessons she taught me.

Read it after the jump.

We lost our little guy today. Rudy was a Senegal Parrot and was 19 years old. He was probably the smartest animal in our house. He rolled over, asked for peanuts, and knew tons of words and phrases like “What the…?” and “Would you like a beer?”

And “Peek-a-boo”. Video proof after the jump.