So, for the next month, I have this incredibly tight schedule that involves teaching two classes, taking care of a small and very active person (who told me yesterday to leave her alone because she "was busy" sigh adolescence at 22 months why?why?), and writing the entire second draft of my… Read full post »

Mum's the word. The sound of silence.

Zipping the lip. All's quiet on the western front.

Fermez la bouche.

Locking the lips and throwing away the key.

Suffer in silence. Holding my tongue. Shutting the fuck up.

Keeping it on the downlow.

Keeping it on the QT.… Read full post »

I'm not always well. My stomach sometimes hurts. My eyes get red. I feel my mortality, as it were. Sometimes, my mortality feels like a black hole made by the Evil Destructor!!!!! and sometimes, I feel like a feather on the ocean, carried along by something invisible to me.

But that's… Read full post »

watch him/as he goes

Hold that kiss

Look straight ahead

she said

let me tell you now

Watch him

as he goes

If you move too quick

How endlessly you’ll fall

she said… Read full post »

My family members are all a terrible bunch of conspiracy theorists and believers of urban legends.

My great-uncle, for example, never believed we landed on the moon, telling us every Christmas when we saw him "That thar moon landin' was faked in Hollywood!"

To emphasize his point, he'd gesture wildl… Read full post »

I like it here mostly. I do. But the glee I saw yesterday over Ablonde's ill-advised decision to put a picture of a teddy bear with a large butcher knife through it gave me pause.

I get that people don't get along. I even understand, very clearly, that some people… Read full post »

I thought OS was a site populated by adults.

That was my assumption.

I realize that not all of us here are in complete possession of every one of our faculties 24 hours a day. Heck, I would say that's probably the majority of us.

I know absolutely that… Read full post »

This post is a thank  you post. Thank you everyone who was so kind to me, both here on OS and out in the world, when I lost my dog. Thank you. 

Thank you to the people who picked her up five blocks from here and took her to the Humane… Read full post »

I know. Another list.

1. This worries me. I can't stop thinking about it. I've lost my dog. She's been missing over 48 hours. She escaped into a neighborhood full of coyotes. She's mostly deaf. She's old but spry. I miss her. I wish she were here. 

2. My father

He… Read full post »

I just want to thank you, Mr. Stud, for picking the Starbucks where I was today to cough up your lung!!!

Really, I totally enjoyed it!

 I know you're a tough guy. You can't be sick. You have to "get back out there" even at the expense of other people!! I… Read full post »

So, this post is definitely a throwaway post, written before the Kid's dinner. It keeps coming to my attention that I read things, see things, think things, and then they disappear into the ether. Never to return. Perhaps it's for the best, but just in case it's not, I'm going to… Read full post »

The final story is about my family. And our ghosts. They are mild, calm ghosts mainly. So, in essence, there's not too much to tell. 

But it starts with an amazing coincidence.

As my father has explained it to me, our family was granted a large piece of land… Read full post »

I have a friend who does not believe in ghosts. He firmly believes that, when we die, we're dead. That's it. Adios. Nothing else. You're done. Finito. Pushing up daisies. 

He also doesn't believe animals have feelings, but instead, only have "instincts," which ... er ... I am often hard-pressed… Read full post »

I promise to put up ghost stories tomorrow. But I've been busy! There's no time for fun. Boo. I have to pick up the Kid early today and go get our H1N1 vaccinations and then the grocery store and then my dissertation and then ...

Yeah, it's busy but also boring.… Read full post »

So, no ghost story yet for this week. I'm grading. Boo. Much scarier than a ghost story, believe me. And the sink in the kitchen has backed up. Just another moment in the Landlord Diaries, I'm sure. sigh.

So, here's something to listen to in the meantime. Alexi Murdoch. Fantastic. Seriously.… Read full post »

So, today I decided to skip working on the dissertation for the morning and instead, meet a friend in East Nashville for coffee at this little coffee/foodie shop that has really good food. East Nashville is full of hipsters these days, renovating the old houses and generally participating in hip-yup… Read full post »

 PART ONE IS HERE.

I truly did not mean to take a week to update this story. Truly. Please do not hurt me. It was a very busy week, and I got caught up in it. Kind of like a girl in a horror flick, I kept going up the stairs… Read full post »

So, it's been a tough day here in the Land of Motherhood. There was an "incident" at dinner whereby the Kid threw her food and got a time out and then DID IT AGAIN and had a toy taken away (temporarily--I am not an ogre) along with a second time out.… Read full post »

So, as you all must know, since it's been in the store since, wow, JULY (really not kidding), Halloween will soon be upon us. 

Despite the commercialization of what I nearly consider a religious holiday (heh heh), I still love Halloween and especially ghost stories.

To get us all "in… Read full post »

I'm going to tell you  more terrible things here about myself. They are all true. 

Pretty much.

 1. I confess that I use twitter as a tool for spying on celebrities. I confess it! I like to see what's happening with Nicole Richie, of all people! I mean, I never even… Read full post »

I don't know what force took me over on the drive to work this morning, but whole cloth, these ridiculous ENDINGS sprang into my head. Perhaps you can find the beginnings of them. Perhaps you have your own endings to add. 

 Here they are:

#1.  But, in the end, the people… Read full post »

Well. I can't find my camera. I've packed it somewhere. I'll eventually find it among the soaps or in a drawer or something. I've lost the stupid thing.

But when you move, well, when I move, I always find things that I thought I'd lost as well. Such… Read full post »

Soon and very soon, my field opens up its meager job offerings and presents them on a tiny tin platter to about 20,000 (or more) starving applicants. It's a busy time. I still can't get one of my old universities to send me all my old student evaluations, which they've been… Read full post »

This post is not a real post.

These thoughts aren't even all that original.

(And neither are those.)

One thought, very long:

When I was little, we had a Thanksgiving Day play. I wanted to play an Indian (now correctly called an Amerindian or Native American but it was… Read full post »

**Inspired by this post. Go there. 

When I read her the stories, I often change the endings.

 Sometimes, I say, "And she met in the woods seven dwarves who lived in a messy house. They offered her a place to live in exchange for doing the cooking and cleaning, but… Read full post »