The Charleston Gazette - Karin Fuller

Smell the Coffee: The possum in the toilet wasnt playing dead

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I promised myself I wouldnt write about animals for a while, but all it took was an opossum in my toilet and that vow went down the drain. It was an ill-fated decision the poor little guy made. Hed probably been out for an evening s...

Smell the Coffee: Driven to distract

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- After writing on Mothers Day about growing up with a mom who knew how to play in the sand, I received an email from Jennifer Hatten, of Huntington. Jennifer and her husband are expecting their first baby any day, and her mother, Joy...

Smell the Coffee: How do you mend a broken heart.

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I was sitting on the grass in my yard the other night with a lumpy old rabbit licking my feet, a once feral cat sitting on my left, and a dog with a red Mohawk on my right, when it occurred to me that my normal isnt terribly normal. ...

Smell the Coffee: Critters feeling game

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 25 May 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- My story last week about a wild rabbit that attempted to take ownership of my garage prompted a few notes from readers whove experienced wildlife problems of their own. "My family has a camp on the Elk," wrote Randrover. &...

Smell the Coffee: Hare wars

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Its said that a mans home is his castle. In my world, though, that sentence needs tweaked. Take out the word "man." Insert "rabbit." Then substitute "castle" with "garage." Sometime this spri...

Smell the Coffee: Moms who play in the sand

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 11 May 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Pity the private person whose daughter is a columnist. My poor mother. Shes so modest and reserved. And here it is, another Mothers Day, and shes probably cringing as she opens her newspaper, wondering which story about her Ive now ...

Smell the Coffee: Along came a spider

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 04 May 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- So Im sitting at my desk in my little home office with the window open and a nice breeze blowing. All the furry creatures in the house are present and accounted for. Cats to the right of me. Dog at my feet. Teen texting on the futon....

Smell the Coffee: Spring fever

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Ive been calling it bad luck, but my daughter claims shes just efficient. Rather than get a few colds and flu bugs every year, Celeste says she saved up and got them all at once instead. My girl has been through the wringer these pa...

Smell the Coffee: Standing back up

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last week, after writing about the death of our dog Murry, I was overwhelmed with kind emails offering condolences and sharing stories about pets. Ive been shored up by readers so often Im starting to feel like a wobbly deck in a ne...

Smell the Coffee: Tuesday with Murry

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I knew it was coming, but never expected it would happen so soon. Murry wasnt even 11, although close. Hed not even seemed like an old dog until the last few months, when he skipped middle age entirely and shot straight to doddering...

Smell the Coffee: No shortcuts to literary fame

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- One of the most frustrating things about people knowing youre a writer is when a greeting card gets shoved in front of you and youre expected to write something clever. Theres no "best wishes" or simple "Ill miss you&q...

Smell the Coffee: No dressing-down over dressing down

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I miss hiding Easter eggs. I miss decorating baskets and rationing chocolate and picking synthetic grass out of the carpet. But I dont miss the whole Easter dress drama. When my daughter was little, she loved wearing dresses. She j...

Smell the Coffee: Toddlers and teenagers

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Some mornings Im not sure if I have a normal daughter or one prepping to audition for the role of Regan in an "Exorcist" sequel. To say that Celeste is not a morning person is a ferocious understatement. Vampires greet the ...

Smell the Coffee: I swear, its not you

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last weeks column on office pet peeves opened a can of worms. Or maybe a case. It also left me feeling a little awkward around my own office, as several of my co-workers seem convinced I wrote about them. I would never do something...

Smell the Coffee: Obnoxious office offenses

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- "Have you ever done a column on office pet peeves." I was recently asked. "Because if you havent, you should." They went on to tell me about a woman they worked with who cleared her throat constantly, dr...

Smell the Coffee: So much to share, so little time

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I realized the other day that out of the thousands of people Ive met over the years, my absolute favorite is the one I made myself. Whod have thought. I mean, I cant even cook a decent omelet, so pulling...

Smell the Coffee: Seven days of finding the humor

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last Sunday, I wrote about this Seven Day Mental Health Diet I was preparing to start. I was determined to make it through a full week without complaining or having any negative thoughts whatsoever. I was going to repackage every...

Smell the Coffee: Seven days of positive

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A few weeks back, a reader sent an email that said, "This sounds like something youd like." Attached was a file labeled "Seven-day diet." Since I was already on a diet at the time (like always), I didnt open the ...

Smell the Coffee: If Id been Timmy, Id have drowned in that well

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It was the headline about a pig saving a baby goat from drowning that prompted me to click on the first story. From there I was lured to stories about a seizure-detecting cat, a pair of dogs that kept an autistic boy warm while he wa...

Smell the Coffee: A tough act to follow

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- There are people whose acts you simply dont want to follow. Their light soaks up all the shine. Back around Christmas, my friend Ginger Hamilton and I went to Third Eye Cabaret at the Charleston Cellar at 8 Capitol St. Third Eye per...

Smell the Coffee

(Staff reports) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Smell the Coffee by Karin Fuller will return Feb. 3. ...

Smell the Coffee: Organ donors live on in others

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A little over a year ago, I wrote about a Texas couple who lost their 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, from injuries received in a skiing accident. When told that Taylor wouldnt survive, the family agreed to donate her organs, believing...

Smell the Coffee: Someday my rinse will come

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- There was less than 48 hours left in 2012 when the year managed to sneak in one last little jab. A sneaky little sucker punch. Ha. Fuller let her guard down. Get her! The years final blow came in the form of an exploding w...

Smell the Coffee: A brave new world

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I am not a fearful person, but neither am I brave. I am tough. Ill give myself that. Maybe even a little bit hardened. But brave. Not so much. The changes in my life that began last summer were unexpected, but were they ent...

Smell the Coffee: Another fresh start

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- My friend Caitlin and I were on our way to a hair appointment when a car passed ours. It was all decked out with toilet-paper streamers, and across the rear window, someone had written: "Just Divorced." "You should do...

Smell the Coffee: A hare raising experience

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last week, a friend was trying to convince me to take in a stray dog. "No more animals," I told her. "No. More. Animals. Im done with creatures. When the ones I have are gone, they wont be replaced." I suspect G...

Smell the Coffee: Sage sayings soothe and support

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the long competition between my house and my car for a much-coveted prize (my sanity), the car finally won. It was rewarded with a trip to the auto auction, and Im now driving a great little 2005 Jeep Liberty. Still, its been an ...

Smell the Coffee: Thinking inside the box

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I like the way Ohio teacher Pete Kaser thinks. Kaser removed every one of the toys in his preschool classroom and replaced them with empty cardboard boxes. "I wasnt getting the imagination out of the children that I wanted,&qu...

Smell the Coffee: Giving good gifts isnt that hard

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- When talking about Christmas shopping with some men at work, I learned that nearly all of them plan to give gift cards or cash rather than try to shop for specific items. They reason that they wouldnt have any idea what to get, or th...

Smell the Coffee: How bad was this day. Let me commence

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I was telling a friend about the terrible day I was having when he started laughing. He apologized for laughing, and then started laughing some more. "Im sorry," he said. "At least your columns going to be easy this w...

Smell the Coffee: Bits and pieces from the files

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- For many years Ive kept idea files. One is a folder pinned to a bulletin board, stuffed with random articles, photos, quotes and stories that got my wheels turning enough that I wanted to hold on to them. The other idea files are on...

Smell the Coffee: Ask not for whom the dog barks, it barks for me

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Confucius says a barking dog is often more useful than a sleeping lion. But not to the barking dogs neighbor. Especially when the neighbor is grumpy and on deadline. This particular dog would start a new series of ai-yi-yis every e...

Smell the Coffee: Sandy before painting

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In spite of all the weather warnings, I really hadnt expected to end up home from work on Tuesday. I cant recall the last time I had an unplanned day off that didnt involve chicken soup and a box of tissues, so I was determined to ma...

Smell the Coffee: Wheres your brain with regard to zombies.

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I posted a question on Facebook last week looking for Halloween-related stories, or maybe something on zombies, since theyre all the rage. "Can someone please explain this zombie apocalypse nonsense." one woman asked. &quo...

Smell the Coffee: A head of the game

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The way I figure it, what I did with the body was kind of my due. Payment for the days of commotion and dirty dishes and mountains of laundry. And mostly, for having been eaten out of house and home by teen locusts. This particular ...

Smell the Coffee: Conversing on a train

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- While out of town recently, I was on a train seated across from two brothers from Massachusetts. One manages a Lowes store somewhere in the Boston area. "Theres this guy who comes into my store all the time, at least once a wee...

Smell the Coffee: O tale of cellphone eavesdropping

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sometimes its hard not to listen in to a strangers cellphone conversation. Especially when the person drops some little ear-tweaking teaser phrases that rank the conversation too potentially interesting to miss. I just never expected t...

Smell the Coffee: Product reviews are the latest in comedy

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Some new products on the market seem designed for ridicule. Take, for example, Bics new "for Her" line of pens. Ad copy for the pastel-colored pens touts its "elegant design" and "thin barrel to fit a wo...

Smell the Coffee: Shifting into a lower gear

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It was one of those phrases that stuck. It wasnt even aimed my direction, but hit anyway. I was in grade school at the time. Third grade. Parent-teacher conferences. Privacy wasnt the requirement then that it is now, so my parents a...

Smell the Coffee: Cotton tale

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I walked into the kitchen last Sunday morning to find one of my daughters friends staring out the kitchen window, head tilted. She was squinting up into a big oak tree that towers over my porch. "Did it really snow last night.&...

Smell the Coffee: Let me eat cake

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Used to be that having your birthday remembered would make a person feel special, but thanks to Facebook and other computer-automated reminders, birthday greetings often begin arriving en masse starting at midnight, when reminders ar...

Smell the Coffee: Passing the buck

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sometimes I get the feeling my Creator was inspired by Disney since I have far more than the average persons share of Bambi and Thumper moments. Case in point: Last week, I went outside to collect my Gazette, and there in my fro...

Smell the Coffee: The healing power of anger

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- For as long as I can remember, Ive heard that anger is a terrible thing, how its negative and damaging and something to be avoided. And generally, with the exception of when Im behind the wheel and in a hurry, I anger slowly and ...

Smell the Coffee: Almost heaven down by the riverside

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As I write this, Im coming down from one of the best weekends of my life. My heads still down by the Greenbrier River. My heart is in Lewisburg, which Im thinking might now be my favorite place. In 2011, Budget Travel magazine ...

Smell the Coffee: Going the extra mile for my girl

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It was the last thing I wanted to do. Or so I thought. This past Monday was my daughters 15th birthday. The only thing Celeste wanted was a ticket to the Vans Warped Tour, an all-day series of concerts that was scheduled for the...

Smell the Coffee: Dont fear the reaper

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- I was manning the registration desk at my 30-year reunion, amused by history having looped back around to me working a table while my classmates socialized, when a man -- the guest of a fellow Nitro class of 82 attendee -- approa...

Smell the Coffee: Way to go

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Although I never got to meet Val Patterson, I like the guy. He seemed like someone who got all the fun he could out of life. And even some out of death. Paterson recently lost his battle with throat cancer, and his self-written...

Smell the Coffee: Sharing snippets

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Snippets collected during my week working out of town.

••• Howard, from Charleston, telling about taking his wife to her very first horse race. "The first race of the night happened to be ...

Smell the Coffee: One-liners saved for just this occasion

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- My day job just required a 2 1/2-hour drive, followed by meetings, followed by proofreading several pages of tiny print, then another 2 1/2-hour drive. The only creative juices that remain within me couldnt quench a premature inf...

Smell the Coffee: Warning: Pranks pose sleeping risks

karinfuller@cnpapers.com (Karin Fuller) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 23:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- When I was growing up, falling asleep on the couch while watching TV wasnt a wise thing to do, considering I was raised in a family of pranksters. If it happened to be dark outside when I dozed off, theyd not only shut off every ...