I came to, or woke up, or whatever I should call the process of becoming aware of my surroundings, in the Yavapai County Jail in Prescott, Arizona. At first I was confused, then I knew I was in jail. My chest tightened with fear. Why was I there?

I started crying,… Read full post »

Trig's son, Eli, will be heading to a posting in Japan in a couple of weeks. That made me think of this story.  

 Also found this fascinating and hilarious post by Myriad on the vagaries of foreign toilets. 

Last year, my sister and her husband had bought a fancy new toi… Read full post »

With much thanks to Trish, the perfect high school best friend, who reminded me of this wacky outing not long ago. It was typical of our behavior back then. Surprisingly, we both turned out all right. 

I have never been jealous of other girls, which is good. If I were, I… Read full post »

Milagrito, my muse, the cat who started me writing again when he joined Catster, where he became a larger than life character, Miracle I, the Feline Pope in Exile; he of the compelling eyes and cosmic purr, the boss of our house, a virtuoso of trust, the cat who would… Read full post »

Many thanks to l'Heure Bleue, who referred me to this hilarious cat post. 

This was originally posted on Catster, where I wrote as my other cat, Milagrito, in July, 2007. 

Sports Magic

by Milagrito 

I’ve been thinking about the sports glories of my youth, but before I… Read full post »

Am I doing the right thing? 

Last October, as I was preparing for spinal surgery, I took my cat Sirenita to the vet. I said jokingly, “She has a drinking problem.” I'd noticed in the last couple of months that she was drinking enormous quantities of water. The old plastic bags… Read full post »

It was the 60s, and my family had moved back to San Francisco from the suburbs. “The suburbs” suggests a far greater affluence than was true of the cultural wasteland where I had spent the 10 years of my life before the age of 14. We lived in small, cheap… Read full post »

My baby sister and I were great pals. There was enough difference in our ages that I thought of her as my baby, rather than a rival, when she was born, and once she was older, I treated her like an equal, not a baby. I told her things, big kid… Read full post »

There’s nothing I like better than a farce, even one with a tragic ending. I find that most of the drama in life happens at home. The love, the pain, the beginnings, the endings, the uproar, the damage to your walls. 

Last October, I was in my basement in my bathrobe,… Read full post »

The fatigue that you get from hepatitis (and I imagine cancer, cardiac conditions and the like) is not like being tired. If you’ve never experienced medical fatigue, you have nothing to compare it to. Before I became ill, I often worked overtime. I once worked 14 hour days for three weeks… Read full post »

 The recent surgery to correct the hideous curvature of my spine has put me in mind of all my other accidents and illnesses, present, past and chronic. I am struck by the number of stories which are associated with all these misfortunes, not to mention the irony of being so strong… Read full post »

I’m not fluent in lolcat, but I have a t-shirt that says “I iz on vacashun okthxbai” and I’m wearing it now in a rented vacation cottage on Hood Canal, a wetland that drains into Puget Sound in Washington. I’m here with my husband, on vacation. We drove from San Francisc… Read full post »

The year my father died, I missed the school bus a few times. I was in fourth grade. I lived in a working class suburban neighborhood, a collection of small, three-bedroom houses with little front and back yards, each with a small, individual front yard tree. It was in San Mateo… Read full post »

I have had a fascination with rodents ever since I was ten and the cat would bring them into the house. She would leave them half-eaten under the bed or the dining room table, and my mom, the princess, could not bring herself to go near them. This was after my… Read full post »

for Drew-Silla, who asked, in reference to yesterday's post where I was arrested hitchhiking, “What happened in Mendocino?”

The hitchhiking was good when we got out of jail in the early afternoon. Everybody hitchhiked and everybody picked you up and it was no longer the middle of the nigh… Read full post »

This is one of my favorite posts, a funny episode, written when I was new on OS, didn't have a lot of friends and was still finding my voice. -Sirenita

I hate filling in forms. Not only that, I suck at it. I’m a bit dyslexic and astigmatic and… Read full post »

Outside Myself suggested  that we write about how we became our login names. That triggered this avalanche.

1999, a litter of kittens was born under a bush or behind a dumpster in Oakland, California. The kittens were a rarity in the feline world because they had a dad at… Read full post »

How I came to be buying a condom in a Hilton hotel across the street from LAX is a meandering tale of impulsive decisions and their consequences, tragic or comic. In the late 70s, I graduated from college with a degree in linguistics. I had no particular plans for being any… Read full post »

 A month ago, continuing my exploration of risky behavior, I hooked up with a guy from Craigslist. I refer to him affectionately as my Randy Old Goat, because he has more lovers than anyone in his 60s can be expected to keep up with. There’s the boyfriends, the other girlfriends, the… Read full post »

Life is Good is one of my favorite people on OS, so when she declared an open call about your favorite things intended to help us get to know each other, I wanted to play. However, if you ask me my favorite book or movie, I never know what to say.… Read full post »

The angry man was waiting for me as I parked my car in front of my physical therapist’s office building. He was pissed because I had honked at him. He had been having an argument with his teenage son in the crosswalk of a busy thoroughfare, and the kid bolted to… Read full post »

I was 19. It was an abandoned quarry. I was in the cab of a semi truck, one guy at the wheel, the other in the sleeper. I had been asleep, exhausted, since just outside of Reno, and woke up to the screech of breaks and an abandoned quarry in the… Read full post »

About the only thing I could ever manage to do, much less enjoy, on Facebook was the "notes." Thanks, Leeandra!

1. Who was your FIRST prom date?

Alan, although we broke up and didn’t go to the prom. We didn’t want to disappoint his friends, however, so we got dressed up… Read full post »

My heart was not broken. The blunt force trauma, however, left severe lacerations and contusions. It was in the blue and purple stage of bruising, when touch is painful. I didn’t want to let it stiffen up, so I decided to give it some mild exercise. Nothing too rough. I’m getting… Read full post »