On Facebook the other day, I got on a rant with an old friend, quoting the movie Arthur back and forth for most of the afternoon, like we'd done for the last 15 years or so.  John is in Afghanistan, on his last tour.  It got me thinking about… Read full post »

Open Salon has dribbled itself from a place I go to a place that comes to me.  I had it compartmentalized, who I read and interacted with, who my real friends were, and then who were not my real friends, but people I knew through Facebook.  Facebook changed things.  "Friend" became… Read full post »

If I could do it all over again, I’m sure I would have made a different choice.  But they looked up at me with those big eyes, those impossibly long eyelashes only bestowed upon the very young.

“Can we go to Chuck E. Cheese, Mommy?” They even added, “Please?”… Read full post »

*Originally published on Fictionique

http://fictionique.com/?p=10545 

I never got around to writing the first Alysa/Beth OC, so if it’s okay with everyone involved, I’d like to do a combo here since a few things came to mind in the shower a few minutes ago.  So with wet hair, I begin:

Something I’m Surprised I Like:

 … Read full post »

Two years ago, two important things happened to me: my father died, and I wrote a novel.  I say the novel “happened to me” because I don’t know who that disciplined girl was, putting all of her energy into writing, writing, writing every day, with a two-year-old and a four-year… Read full post »

There are some families, big Irish/Catholic ones with multiple children milling about.  Their hard-working, hard-scrabble parents find a little piece inside themselves that isn’t too tired or overwhelmed, something miraculously intact from their own childhood and use it to create Christmas… Read full post »

There’s something about clean laundry that makes everything all right with the world.  Piled up, clean-smelling; tights waiting to be pulled up a young girl’s leg, t-shirts laying patiently, awaiting ketchup stains and dirt. Suits and skirts are wrapped in plastic dry-cleaning bags,… Read full post »

When some parents divorce, I’ve heard of children having to stand up in courtrooms, to point their fingers, and to choose between them.  I can’t imagine the turmoil that might go on in a young mind like that, the guilt, the pressure.  Even as an adult, after my parents’ se… Read full post »

Her name was Jamie too, but it was spelled differently than mine, like a boy’s.  And though I had no control over the name my parents had chosen, feet water-swollen and both their bellies protruding from chocolate-malted-third-trimester cravings sitting in front of the Bionic… Read full post »

The foreshadowing on the Thruway wasn’t lost on me.  A tractor trailer bearing the logo for ASA Apple on its mudflaps announced its arrival to my right, and I reached my hand to where my father’s Army cap hangs from my gear shifter, a quick squeeze of acknowledgement.  It’… Read full post »

Technically, I was fired, but all of my willful decisions leading up to my termination cause me to throw it into the “quitter” category, along with the many other jobs and hats I’ve tried on, and summarily cast off.  The difference with this one, however, was that it was a life… Read full post »

I watched the President speak last night, carefully worded rhetoric intended to inspire the people to action with their votes, their patience, their determination.  I watched him flinch around topics about the economic reality, dance around the issue of progress with words like “compromise… Read full post »

The thing about my favorite things is that they're probably not new to you, but I've always been a late bloomer, so here goes:

Karaoke.   I know! I've never been known (or tolerated) to carry a tune, but with quite a few vodka cranberries, I worked up the nerve at… Read full post »

In “A Pirate Looks at 40,” Jimmy Buffett recalls his childhood dream of being a pirate on the stormy seas and laments that the times have changed such that this reality is made impossible.  There are no more pirates (I think he had Johnny Depp inspired pirates more in mind than… Read full post »

There is one red ice pop left.  The bag is full of the unpopular greens and yellows, the last chosen, like the fat, uncoordinated kids in gym class.  I hand them out randomly to my two kids, wincing in anticipation of the screams of the unfairness of the ice pop distribution. … Read full post »

The Proust Questionnaire

My main character trait: My ability to love without reservation

The quality that I desire in a man: A tendency to like me back.

The quality that I desire in a woman: Camaraderie

What I appreciate most about my friends: I find my home in their love… Read full post »

Until I was twenty-five, I didn’t really know what being American felt like.  Not that I didn’t appreciate the system of government or the culture, I did, but in an abstract sort of way.  Kind of like how I can’t describe what being white feels like unless I’m in a r… Read full post »

The train home from the city last night was moderately full.  Although there were enough seats for everyone, including a courtesy seat between us, a man plopped himself down next to me at Jamaica, unloading himself and his bag, and promptly fell asleep.  I was trapped against the win… Read full post »

My dad was the sad clown.  Or sometimes the funny clown.  A tyrant.  A teddy bear.  Weak. Strong.  Ignorant.  Clever.  Defiant and selfish and loving and loud.  But I didn’t see him as a person until he was dead. Until then he was an obstruction or a proj… Read full post »