Grace Smith

I’m looking for Lisa Pauley’s office, and she is giving me directions on the phone: “Go three miles, past a brown house, and then, on Bruns Lane, take a right.” I try to envision this, but for some reason, it won’t compute. Lisa senses my confusion at once. “A right,” she repeats in a firm […]

I broke my toe. OK, I’m not 100 percent sure that it’s broken. All I know is, it happened a couple weeks of ago, the pain hasn’t abated, and attempting to run on it makes the pain worse. Walking isn’t so great, either, especially if I get it into my head to walk a whole […]

Cars have never been my thing. But last Friday night I got to ride in a Thing in the Route 66 Festival Cruise — a Volkswagen Thing, to be exact. So that brings things (such as they are) full circle. First, me and cars. I try not to hit things in my car. I’m generally […]

The last time I was in Denver, I helped with my friend Kelly’s wedding. She was a week away from marrying a great guy named Rob, and they were frantically trying to pull this wedding off by themselves. Their families showed up during the week, but then it seemed like more work, keeping the family […]

When I was a kid, I suddenly realized that every other kid listened to music — everybody had a favorite song, a favorite group he or she listened to. My head was always buried in books, and I’d tuned the world out. But in my quest to figure out how to fit in with other […]

Did you see that movie Pay It Forward? Kevin Spacey was in it, as were Haley Joel Osment and Jon Bon Jovi. Here’s something funny about Jon Bon J. You’re probably aware he’s a big rock star. He used to have really big hair. I’d never actually seen him because of my general lack of […]

“You can write about fall for this issue, if you want,” said my editor. Fall? Fall? Is anybody thinking about fall right now? Are you kidding me? I mean, it was suddenly strangely chilly for a few days, but where’s the rest of summer? My Boyfriend and I were taking a walk the other night, […]

You may have read last week that I claimed to love the fried cheese curds at the Illinois State Fair. I loved them on opening day, when I first sampled them. Because I wrote about them, I decided I needed a photo, so I bought another grease-soaked trough of them on Sunday and ate all […]

There are two kinds of people in this town: those who like the Illinois State Fair and those who don’t. I have always loved the fair: The food. The rides. The Butter Cow. The Society Horse Show in the Coliseum, always a great opportunity to sit and enjoy some fine organ music while watching fancy […]

I’m sure I’ve mentioned my complete lack of competitive athletic skills, especially in sports involving balls. Throw a ball at me, and one of two things will happen — I’ll duck or you’ll hit me in the head. At least when I go running, the only bad thing that happens is that I fall down […]

Last weekend, I ran in my first (and perhaps my last) seven-mile race. It was the Bix 7 in Davenport, Iowa. This was the 30th year for the race, which is held at the same time as the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. My New Boyfriend (MNB) signed up for the race and asked me to […]