Archive for May 2011
the book i didn’t read this month
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. I lasted two chapters. It was horrific. I’m not squeamish and have plenty of morbid curiosity but I couldn’t do it. I thought I could gain some insight to help me reconcile the events in Japan, but no. My deep fear of nuclear annihilation (thanks,…
Read Morememorial day
My dad Jim died almost five years ago. He fought in World War II. Among his papers are letters and drawings sent to his parents while he was a soldier. Here, he recounts basic and medic training.
Read Moremake it happen make it happen
I’m not all The Secret-style gaga about manifesting good things for myself through the power of visualization and positive thought. However, I spend a couple minutes every few days trying to levitate, or (if that’s physically impossible) to have my soul-self rise above my body-self in the traditional out-of-body experience. This usually occurs when I’ve…
Read Morestart the car / i know a whoopee spot
I had high hopes for what I was going to see inside this car. Alas, not one sequined fedora nor languid snapping hand nor swiveling shoulder to be found. I speak, of course, about the singular vision of the late great Bob Fosse. Follow me, won’t you, to view some of these classic (but perhaps…
Read Morealcatraz
It’s the Fourth Friday Challenge for May. My friend Paul and I, both posting daily in 2011, decided to give each other a job once a month to keep things spicy. In his words, “we want to push ourselves to do something more interesting than we might otherwise.” I will put his challenge to me…
Read Moretale of two to-dos
This is my sister’s to-do list that she created while visiting me last month. Organized, aesthetically appealing — and most importantly, all of the to-dos have been efficiently checked off. That is the way of my industrious yankee kinfolk. Let’s compare that list with this … thing. This is a bag of old, used up…
Read Morecraftorama roundup 2011
I going on the radio today to talk about crafting and quilting which are things that I sometimes do when I’m not obsessing about food or whining about my hip flexor. I am making appearance #2 on Lyn and Cyn’s Women Talk program on KKZZ. You can read/hear about the first appearance (where I talked…
Read Moreexercise in serenity
Thanks for the support in my blog’s comments and in my real life (is there a difference?) regarding the loss of my friend. Those of us who knew him are still kind of shocked and wrung out. I got the news on Saturday morning and have been sinking lower and lower as the reality gets…
Read Morebe not proud
My friend Jon died. I keep composing and deleting, composing and deleting. I’ll just try to get some stupidly incomplete and inadequate words out, and be done with it here. I met him when I was 18 and he was 19, in the dorms at Berkeley. He was weird, wonderful, odd, wild, troubled. He married…
Read Moremay-B
I got some lovely things for my birthday. I had indicated that I did not want presents but would accept consumable and libations. My friend Karin gave me a dozen bagels and a unbelievable schmear from a secret awesome bagel place out in the east county. Oh my god. So good. The flowers are from…
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