1. I sat next to John Goodman on a flight from St. Louis to Los Angeles. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt and jeans and was exactly as his character appeared to be on TV.  He was funny and charming and nice and admited to me that he felt depressed/
… Read full post »

My love is like a red, red rose.

 Except that neither of us is all that fond of the color red – you have too much pink in your complexion to look good in it.  I dislike my breasts looking like cranberries.

So maybe… Read full post »

I went to Las Vegas last weekend to see Cher and now I'd like to Cher the magnificence of my journey, the Cher-ness of it, the sheer Cher-osity, if you will, far and wide.

The Hotel

We stayed at the Wynn, which is a very nice hotel. You can… Read full post »

I enter the trailhead in the early evening, just before the light fades.   The first mile climbs a thousand feet.   It is a slow toil, not unpleasant.  I love the light at this time of day, the way it brings a clear beauty to even the simple brown dirt.  How… Read full post »

1. 1. Because as much as I like the nighttime, I like the daytime too.  I look good with a little tan.

Maybe I’d change my mind if they develop a sunscreen that works for vampires, allowing vampires to walk around during the day, in… Read full post »

(This blog post is replicated in its full dual-authored glory over at  Liz's place)

Part I: In Which We Check Out The Pre-Inaugural Scene

I have had enough.

Stop with the stupid f*cking acronym MILF. It's not cute. It's not funny. It's shorthand for, how can I reduce a woman to her f*ckability, even after she's put in some years and had some experiences like marriage and motherhood that normally would… Read full post »

The first time I saw you, you were drinking wine at that place on Hayes Street, the one that isn’t there anymore. 

You grinned at me,  the neon window signs gleaming in the spitwash on your teeth.  I heard the warning bell but in spite of this, I smiled… Read full post »

 My memory did not lead me here first, but I found myself returning, again and again, to a vision of this food. It is so fundamental to the enjoyment of the other selections here.  Zesta Saltines – a carrier of/… Read full post »

Charlotte ate green peppers all day long

(it’s what she did before writing a song)

she’d eat and write then sing then belch

then kiss her boyfriend – he was Welsh.

She ate her peppers raw or cooked

it… Read full post »

They say, we told you.  He's gone. They say, We almost lost you too.… Read full post »

 Last night the bf and I watched an episode of LA Ink, about a tattoo parlor run by a tall, geeky goth girl who manages a stable of surprisingly talented tattoo artists.  I’ve seen the show before, watched them etch people’s histories and mysteries into their ski… Read full post »

The place I'm from is settled mostly by French and German immigrants who pushed Indians off the land to farm it, a fact that is reflected in the town names: Millstadt, Germantown, Mascoutah, Cahokia,  Kaskaskia, and Belleville ("The Bee-yoo-tiful  Village! my dad would crow as we drove past… Read full post »

  " Sometimes it's hard to be a woman..."

Indeed it is.  And we often make it so much harder on ourselves, looking in the mirror for perfection and by definition not finding it, our eyes honing with lightning speed on the 'flaws' we've made such a habit to bemoan and… Read full post »

 Chicago Guy recently posted on the topic of Muslim-rumor-based voter disapproval of Obama, and I wondered aloud if this disapproval would be higher if Obama, instead of reassuring us he is Christian, declared himself an atheist.  Chiron then pointed me to a study by the University/… Read full post »

I know them well.

I started school early - a December baby, the principal said I seemed bright and decided it would be OK to start me early instead of waiting a year.

It would come to be a decision by parents regretted daily. Me - hourly.… Read full post »

When he was finished he rolled off of her to the right, like always, and was almost immediately asleep.  She gingerly pulled at her long hair which was trapped beneath his left shoulder, and he made a mmmmuummphing sound and gave her thigh a small pat.  Then he was… Read full post »

Needing a break from politics, the bf and I went to REI, which is having a sale.  I didn’t learn to love REI until I moved to Northern California.   I noticed that there was a certain style of dress here – a style that I, fresh from my… Read full post »

 Whenever I think of trees, the first one that comes to mind is the tulip tree from the back yard of the house where I grew up, on Stevens Street.  The tulips were all near the top, so that in the summer the tree was a slim green goddess… Read full post »

It is tempting to ask, how’d we get here, only speaking twice a year and even then only when I get on a plane and fly from California to St. Louis, a trip that unfolds exactly the same way every time:

I take the train… Read full post »

He stares down the brown throat and into the paper stomach of his lunch bag.  There is a stale marshmallow with powdery old-lady skin.  Half a green pepper cut on the equator and showering everything with tiny confetti seeds.  A solitary pickle, dry and green and… Read full post »

Before you died,  you made me promise that if you died I would never ever forget you.   Funny how it’s only now that I’m remembering you said “if” and not ‘when” as if you thought an exemption could be made.

Or maybe… Read full post »