My work schedule is somewhat chaotic. Several days a week, I teach in the morning, either from eight to one, or nine to 12:30 and then there is a gap from 1pm until 6pm. On the up side, I use that time to grade papers so that the majority of my… Read full post »

I have a playlist in iTunes, it has 232 songs in it (which, for me, is not a lot of songs, and I add to it regularly). I have a friend, probably several, struggling with depression. But I have been writing—emailing—back and forth with this one in particular, trying to find… Read full post »

The world has seemed to turn inside out in the last several weeks, at least for me.

Netflix? Well, yeah I’m annoyed that they raised their prices. Yeah, I’m annoyed that they’re going to split the queues. I don’t have time to keep one queue straight. But really what are my… Read full post »

I started reading the Tarot before I was twenty. One of my favorite cards is The Fool. It can be interpreted in many ways—of course there’s face value: fool. But there are nuances.

Is he really a fool? Well, he is stepping off of a cliff without looking at the consequences—he… Read full post »

At World Series time, the fall of my 7^th grade year (1970-71), the 8^th grade challenged us to a baseball game.  Some teacher said that we should have a vote on which boys should be on the team.  I thought this a bit odd, but figured ok, I would get voted on, right? /… Read full post »

It’s a little after 7am and I am drinking coffee. A deep grey cloudbank sits on the eastern horizon, hanging low; so complete is its presence that its threat seems diminished. What appears to be an osprey is looking for breakfast in the James River. He (she?) makes a sharp dive… Read full post »

We don’t have earthquakes here. The good solid east coast… Not so much. I learned, in 2003, that Virginia sits on a fault line—who knew?

People still mention the quake of ’03. December 2003. Everyone knows where he or she was, what they were doing. I was with a homebound… Read full post »

It’s been a tough month. Tough. Rachel tells me I should be sitting Shiva. It’s a nice idea. Twenty years is a long time to spend with another living being. But everything--one dies.

To sit.

To allow myself to grieve.

But for me, like everyone else, the world pushes.

Work. 40-hour---60,… Read full post »

I’m too young to have been sucked into the Elvis craze. I never understood the idea of women crying and fainting. Really, ladies? It’s no wonder that on average we earn less per hour than a man – as a group we look sort of ridiculous. All it takes to overpower… Read full post »

 Guest Blog by Ed Cook.

 In the late 1960’s I was, like most Americans, very excited about the Apollo Moon Landing and very impressed with NASA as an organization.  Patriotic, oh yes!! We beat the Russians to the Moon!!!!  I was disappointed when the Moon Landings were cance/… Read full post »

No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. Terry Pratchett

People keep asking me if I’m ok. On the one hand, that’s good; it means the people in my life are caring, considerate, attuned to the anguish of others. On… Read full post »

My horse, Saiga, turned thirty in May. Thirty is respectably old for a horse, very respectable. Like Bilbo-old respectable. He had begun to show his age. His hearing went first. He stopped responding to the whistling we used to call him. To get his attention, I’d have to walk all the… Read full post »

I have a difficult relationship with fast food institutions. I mean, I get it that rocket scientists don’t work there. Really I do, but…

 “What can I get for you?”

 “I’d like a BLT.”

 “What would you like on that?”

 &ldquo… Read full post »

I got my first computer in 1982. It was a cute little thing, a Texas Instruments machine. I used a cassette player as a hard drive. I wanted a computer so that I could take better care of my poetry; so that I could store it someplace safely for all time.… Read full post »

Sometimes, I think it would’ve been cool to live in the time of Shakespeare and Marlowe. Sometimes. Will built his reputation as a playwright on stage: here, here is my work. Come one, come all; admire me… Kit’s reputation is a little more colorful: rumored to be a British spy/… Read full post »

I was showing a friend, a coworker, how to see houses on Google maps the other day. She was excited. We looked at her house in England, her children’s homes; one in the Northeast and one in Los Angeles. She kept coming back to a house she lived in, in England,… Read full post »

When Jamie was three, I took her and Nick to get their pictures taken at the Harborlight Mall in Weymouth. Olan Mills. Christmas pictures. Nick didn’t like being a baby and struggled against it at every turn. You can’t make me sleep. Or eat. Or be in a silly-snowsuit! I hate one-piec… Read full post »

Steaks on the grill. Storm in the forecast. Charge all gadgets so there’ll be something to do when the power goes out (note when, not if).

Storm. Wind. Lightning. Thunder that rattles windows. Power outage. Rain blowing so hard we can’t see. Lightning strike. Power back. Interne… Read full post »

I’ve been thinking about this prompt for days. And I’m not sure exactly what it’s asking me; it implies, on the surface, that there are days when I don’t feel American. I was born in the United States, although I am first generation Irish-American. How could I ever feel anythi… Read full post »

Ryan and I watched a movie last night, Black Death. Sean Bean, looking very Boromir-like.

Set in the 1348. The Plague. Monks and knights. Bean, clearly, is a knight. Witches and warriors. It sounded good. Our type of movie.

Not so much. I should have taken it as an omen… Read full post »

Wordpress keeps track of the search engine searches that have brought people to my blog. It’s nice to know that people are searching for my blog by name. There are several versions of Mel’s Madness (add blog, add my name).

Every author I have ever mentioned in my blog has brought… Read full post »

Friday, I bought an Apple TV, which isn’t really a TV at all. It’s a little black box that can be hooked to (the right sort of) a TV. I thought I had the right sort, but I didn’t. But Ryan did. So we traded TVs.

Then Ian decided he would… Read full post »

So, I went to the Post Office. I should probably note, I have post office phobias. I don’t know why. I hate going to the post office. Hate it. Avoid it. Don’t send out essays to publications if they need to be snail mailed. I will spend the extra money to have things/… Read full post »