Katie Botkin

Arkansas to Oklahoma

As a child, Collin spent his summers in Arkansas, on his grandparents’ 300 acres outside Little Rock. It’s surprisingly pleasant; nothing like I remember of my own childhood in neighboring Oklahoma. It’s hot and humid, but the breeze coming off the lake is delicious and there is shade everywhere. It’s green and the roads windContinue reading “Arkansas to Oklahoma”

Solo female travel as therapy

Sometimes, particularly when I’m hot and bone-weary and I’ve just done something like lose a passport, it occurs to me that I might have a slightly perverse desire to get the best of weird situations. Because when I travel, when I overcome the barriers of my own shortcomings and whatever happenstance is flung at meContinue reading “Solo female travel as therapy”

What to do when you lose a US passport in Singapore

The US Embassy website for Singapore is incomplete in that it doesn’t actually tell you everything you need to do in order to get out of the country legally. Also, the only information it provides about timeframe is that it will “take one to two weeks for passport renewal.” Note: that’s for regular passport renewal.Continue reading “What to do when you lose a US passport in Singapore”

Orange Grove road to Silat avenue

I walk down Orange Grove road, past the lush gardens of opulent hotels, which are much the same in every country in the world, to Orchard road, which is lined with high-end shops and high-end shoppers who teeter along on their unusually frilly designer heels and look impossibly sleek in the humidity. I am wearingContinue reading “Orange Grove road to Silat avenue”

Religious tour of Chinatown

My sightseeing here in Singapore has been somewhat curtailed by my efforts to get my passport paperwork in order, but I did make it down to Chinatown, which is both a huge free tourist destination and an interesting cultural commentary on Singapore. There is no majority religion in Singapore due to the diverse ethnic mixContinue reading “Religious tour of Chinatown”

Singapore, jet lag and a lost passport

I arrived at 1 a.m. local time in Singapore. Everyone lined up neatly, politely, for the taxis outside the airport, and I stuck my passport in my back pocket after having cleared customs. I was just telling my co-workers that I felt pretty good, considering, and then I think I stuck my passport in myContinue reading “Singapore, jet lag and a lost passport”

Dancing with the divine

I have recently taken up dancing lessons, which is not anything I haven’t tried before. I danced for many years: in my childhood and early teens, I did ballet, up until I got pointe shoes and decided I’d gone as far as I wanted to go with it. In college, I regularly went swing dancing,Continue reading “Dancing with the divine”

HPV for the uninitiated

You know that phone call you just hope you won’t get for a long, long time. That one from the clinic or the hospital, saying “We just got your lab test back, and there’s something abnormal going on with some of your cells. We need you to come in for further testing.” That call soundsContinue reading “HPV for the uninitiated”

Elaina becomes a little girl

This is Elaina. She has just turned one, and she likes health food. She is currently enjoying a stick of celery. She prefers it to the birthday cake on her tray. She is sort of good at sharing her presents with her older sister, who has a tendency to help herself anyway. Elaina’s not thatContinue reading “Elaina becomes a little girl”

Winter peace

Here in the north, winter can be long and cold. But sometimes that means stories told after dinner, candlelight, long naps, and the change in matter from liquid to various solids, enabling small miracles. Gliding across water, writing messages in the lake. Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling too well. I told a couple of people, andContinue reading “Winter peace”