C.K. Dexter Haven

C.K. Dexter Haven
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Person
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I write. I read. I work. I eat. I live in a house. I sleep. I wake with the thought of coffee. I like makers and doers. I like thinkers who write. I like makers who think and doers who write. People who make/think/write/do but who also dance/laugh/play/falter are my favorite kind of people. I'm pretty down with life being messy. It explains a lot when all the stars don't align. I believe in Random. Random explains a lot too. Like, why good things happen to Dick Cheney and bad things happen to real human beings. Please don't write "everyday" when you mean "every day." I have a doggy crate full of grammar peeves, and that's one of them. Please also don't tell me it's colloquial and now acceptable to use "their" instead of "his" or "her." It might be true, but I'm not yet ready to accept it.

C.K. Dexter Haven's Links

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FEBRUARY 23, 2010 8:19AM

A Speck of Interstellar Dust

 

 

When my mother-in-law, Eleanor, walked into the funeral home chapel on the arms of relatives, my children rushed to greet her. And, despite how I had tried to prepare them for what Alzheimer's had taken away, they were soon in tears. She didn't know them.

Eleanor and I… Read full post »

There's the table. A large, scratched mahogany relic. It's imperfections covered with foldable felt-bottom pads and a polyester tablecloth. My mother believes in polyester and acts on that faith by investing in an assortment of double knit pantsuits.

There's my mother. Pant-suited and standing a… Read full post »


JulieTiara

 Okay, this cutie might just piss me off with her competing tiaraed adorableness. Julie Tarp may have just inspired the sport of toddler wrasslin'. Damn smiley little dumpling cheeks!

Karen&PieLady 

Hells Bells! Whadya do to the nice lady with the pie all over her face?


 

Blah-blahRead full post »

FEBRUARY 7, 2010 10:19AM

Some Things Never Change

 
warm
My mommy keeps warm in this harsh weather by standing by the heater and not going outside unless its [sic] to warm up the car. Another way she stays warm is by standing dy [sic] the oven when it's heated up.
 
 
I thought of this little treasureRead full post »
FEBRUARY 4, 2010 8:59AM

But, I Want A Daddy

 

They are watching a winter soccer game in an inflatable dome. It's cold in there. He is sitting next to Annelies, my daughter. They are happy being there, next to each other... and he slips his arm behind her back and across her shoulder...

 "Get your dirty hands off m… Read full post »

JANUARY 26, 2010 8:47AM

Dear Writer: I'm Reading for The Thing

 

I scan it, noting ev'ry jot and tittle.

Oh — go ahead! Laugh at tittle;

it’s titillating! Not really, not

etymologically. Big word.

Big effing OED-type word.

Just don't get it confused with

the one about bugs, that's just

creepy — and crawly. Good lordy! 

&nbs… Read full post »


 

It was not really a light; it made this light by flashing about so quickly, but when it came to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned inRead full post »

Editor’s Pick
JANUARY 13, 2010 9:03AM

Screeching Like A Red Glider

red porch glider

 

I'm in the groovy-natural section of the grocery store. I'm holding a bottle of wild caught, small fish oil capsules, and squinting at the label on the Awahupi Volumizing Condtioner for fine, limp hair. I don't know what awahupi is, but it promises me volume.

To my left, a… Read full post »

JANUARY 11, 2010 9:44AM

On Trust

 

When it is gone, every door is ominous, filled

with familiar strangers, knowing secrets, having

your heart before you give it; holding it ransom

with your past failures and future desires.

 

Do you get it back? Can you give it again? Used,

worn, smeared with fingerprints, grease stains,

d… Read full post »

Editor’s Pick
JANUARY 5, 2010 11:18AM

The Self-Unemployed Artisan: A Redesign

 my desk

This is a picture of my desk. I don't put it here to brag, though it is highly brag-worthy. This desk is made by my husband. I put it here to remind me of all the years that came before and all the years that have followed. I put it… Read full post »

      
Outside Myself asked why we chose our particular Open Salon names. I chose mine for the character in "The Philadelphia Story," and for a line from that movie:
      
"C.K. Dexter Haven, you have unsuspected depth."

I hate being photographed. For those of you who share this discomfort, I know you get it without me having to describe it. For those who try to take my picture, I've tried to explain, but somehow it only gets translated as me being difficult.

When someone tries to take… Read full post »

postcard

 

  

 

 

THE POST FROM KAPU

 

For months now, since the new year,

beyond Valentine’s Day and the Fourth of July,

I’ve waited for an airmail missive or padded envelope,

leaking sand and rattling with jungle wood;

or maybe an express box, stuffe

Read full post »

 

This is going to be short and sweet...

Today I sat through an overly long meeting (four hours!), got two phone songs from my dear Joan, delivered a few gifts around campus, tied up loose ends, hugged my friend who starts her sabbatical tomorrow, watered my plants, and drove home… Read full post »

This big glop of sugariness is for Will Someone Feed The Cat, for all of her awesomeness. She does something really generous and gorgeous for all of us every week, something we can point to when newcomers dip their toes in the OS pond, something we can refer to when we're… Read full post »

It's been coming for years, then semesters, then months, then weeks. Pretty soon it will be days, and then my friend, Joan, will retire. And already my eyes are welling up, so I'm not sure how I'm going to finish writing this. But I will do my best, with humor, because… Read full post »

 

 

bemis christmas

 

In my last post I invited you all to create something, using the above picture as inspiration. Thanks to all who have played along thus far. If you want to send me a story, picture, poem, video, or whatever, just PM me and I'll add it to… Read full post »


 bemis christmas

 

My Pre-Ramble

 

Last night I took this photo out of its frame and scanned the image to my computer, hoping it would inspire me to write something about being one of the kids in this scene. I struggle with Christmas. I struggle with expectations, both realRead full post »

DECEMBER 4, 2009 6:40PM

If I Had New Birds

 

 

If I still owned prayers, I would toss those white doves into the wind, 

believing in their flight and its purpose.


If I still had a cage full of cooing, flapping faith, I'd unhook the latch

to release the worry-jostled creatures of my imagination.


If I stillRead full post »

DECEMBER 1, 2009 5:20PM

Watching and Waiting

Yesterday you waved and swaggered away,
swigging from your stainless water bottle,
all seventeen in yourself, I yelled
I love you to the wind and bystanders.

Three months into being, they wheeled you away, down
a corridor, and I watched the scrub suits huddle around
your body, nothing serious,… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 28, 2009 6:57PM

For LunchLady2 and Suzie: Stand by Me

 
LunchLady2 and Suzie
So sorry for the loss of your mother. 
You are in our thoughts... 
 
 (Please feel free to leave your messages of condolence and love
to LuchLady2 and Suzie.) 
NOVEMBER 26, 2009 10:10AM

Ten-ish Things for which I'm Grateful

1. There's a kid draped across my lap. He's wearing a thermal shirt imprinted with dinosaurs. His mohawk has turned fauxhawk in anticipation of the snow. He smells like a puppy, but sheds less. His name is Sebastian.

 2. There are four big kids, all but one taller than I. One just… Read full post »

NOVEMBER 22, 2009 10:44AM

Live-Blog Reading the Harper's Index

HARPER’S INDEX 
5:26pm - Estimated number of Al Qaeda members now operating in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. national security adviser : 100
This doesn’t sound like much. Am I supposed to surmise something from this? God, I need to read more.
Number of U.S. troops who wouldRead full post »
NOVEMBER 11, 2009 9:30AM

Thank You, Beautiful Young Men and Women

dad boy
 
This beautiful young man is my father, around twenty years before I was born. I look at this face and see my brow, and the brows of both my youngest son and youngest daughter. I was my father's youngest child.
 
None of us knew my father when he… Read full post »
NOVEMBER 4, 2009 9:10AM

Letters to My Sister

My sister, Norma, moved out of the house and clear across the country in the fall of 1973, just after she turned eighteen. Her departure was abrupt. At least it felt abrupt to those of us she left behind. But, from more than thirty years of hindsight, it seems probable that… Read full post »