January 25, 2022
I Like Banned Books and I Cannot Lie
My home state is in the national news again, because of yet more spectacularly poor decision-making by the most closed-minded members of its citizenry.
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January 18, 2022
Blunt Book Review: Into Thin Air
I’m trying a new thing here: book reviews. Yeah, I know you can read all kinds of actual book reviews by actual book reviewers and critics in the New York Times and on Goodreads, but, get this: I’m not necessarily reviewing new books. No, no, friends. I’ll review whatever I happen to be reading, which could mean something newer or a work published decades ago. Could be fiction or non-fiction or short-story or science fiction. Whatever. It’s all fair game. I’m an eclectic reader and this is how I roll.
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January 9, 2022
Killing Me Softly With His Door
“If he can’t learn how to close the motherfracking door softly, I’m going to murder him while he sleeps.”
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January 1, 2022
2022 Comes With…Teepees?
Happy New Year, friends! Kicking off 2022 with lots of good intentions for this next trip around the sun. My morning meditation told me I have to be open to new possibilities and to new people but my default position is to sit on my couch and not move so we’ll see how that goes. I did step way out of my comfort zone and sign up for a spring writers retreat in Cabo where I’ll stay in a teepee. Granted, it’s billed as a “luxury teepee” and comes with a king-size bed and a bathroom, so it’s closer to a conical hotel room than an actual teepee. It looks like a teepee on the outside, though, so let’s just stick with that.
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December 1, 2021
Welcome to Amytown
When M and I were first married, the ink not yet dry on our marriage certificate, he began to act strangely. Instead of coming home each night after work, he went to his grandmother’s. “I am making her a plant stand,” he said. “She wants me to make her a plant stand.” Okay, fine, but when it was taking days, then weeks, I had my doubts. I had seen Grandma’s plant stands. A plant stand was a slab of Formica with a kitchen cabinet handle affixed to each end and casters mounted to the bottom. This allowed her to place tall plants in giant pots wherever she wanted in her house. She already had quite a few, built for her, I suppose, by her incredibly handy husband. He had passed away a couple of years before we got married, though, so I guess she needed another one and it was up to her grandson, who had inherited her husband’s mechanical inclinations, to make one.
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October 15, 2021
I don’t understand why people hate the DMV
I can’t even with the DMV.
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October 10, 2021
Headed Toward Divorce
It started off so, so good. We were constantly together. I loved the connection. I grew reliant upon it. I altered my lifestyle according to the nudges, the encouragement, and I was happy. Until I wasn’t. Until I realized that I was behaving in ridiculous ways just to avoid the nagging, the subtle comments intended to motivate but that really only induced guilt. Panic would set in if I didn’t conform to expectations. Really, who can live up to that constant pressure? It was time for, at the very least, a trial separation.
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October 5, 2021
Light’s Out!
Sometimes it’s not the technology that malfunctions…
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July 11, 2021
On Poeming
I have skimmed the vast galaxy of poetry on and off my entire literary life, but to be honest, I never felt like I truly understood it and I never developed what I’d call an appreciation for it, beyond the general idea that poets are mystical, magical creatures who bend words and ideas in ways the rest of us simply can’t. The extent of my own poetic efforts culminated in writing a series of snarky haikus with two colleagues during Poetry Month a few years ago. Enjoyable but not exactly worthy of sharing beyond our little trio.
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May 8, 2021
Bird Brain
I am completely bonkers for birds. Obsessed. Smitten. Ensorcelled. Can’t get enough of ’em.
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