All posts by Jackie Pick

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About Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

Outdoor Coffee Quiet

Creative non-fiction, Inspiration, Knitting, Under 750, Writing,

This morning I enjoyed a cup of coffee on our new deck while I journaled. I’ve been wanting to do this for years. First we didn’t have a deck, then we did, then I had a lot of reasons keeping me from doing exactly the things I wanted a desk for.

It was as much a revelation for what was not in the quiet (leaf blowers, neighbors’ music, infernal skeet shooting) as for what was: chatty blue jays descanting over a steady cicada rhythm. Even the traffic from the highway a few miles away, rather than an intrusion, was a pleasant reminder that life is going on in some capacity during pandemic.

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Time, the Prankster God

Creative non-fiction, Inspiration, Pandemic, Parenting, Thoughts on a Saturday, Under 750, Writing, Writing process

Yesterday I participated in a Zoom. I find them exhausting as I try to focus on the speaker, yet cannot help but analyze my own face during conversation. Am I always so animated? Is it annoying? Does it seem insincere? Just what is going on with my forehead? Remembering the purpose of the meeting, I return focus to where it belongs. No one should be able to hover in front of their own face during a conversation, meta-analyzing themselves. It must affect the quality of these virtual interactions.

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Adopt, Adapt, Improve — August 2020 Month in Review

For the love of a dog, Knitting, Month in Review, Parenting, Recommendations, Writing, Writing process, Writing the first book, , , , ,

My dog has a nemesis, a stupid fat squirrel I’ve nicknamed Dumbo. Dumbo wants nothing more than to enjoy the seeds in our birdfeeder. Not content to roll around like Scrooge McDuck in the seeds that blanket the ground beneath the feeder, Dumbo tries to get into the bird feeder via the tree to which it is attached, scurry along the post, defeat the squirrel baffle, and eat from the feeder.

Dumbo is rarely successful, but he sure is committed and determined, if not oafish and stubborn.

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