1:30 P.M.  Friday.  After aerobics,
black beans.  Texas
Texas Salsa.  Italian cheese.
Hell yeah Italian cheese. 
Tortillas.  Flat champagne,
peanut butter truffles,
and a glass of water.

Sweaty,tipsy, full--happy.

*

When I was in junior high, I read this amazing story by Curtis Sittenfeld in Seventeen.  Not only did I save it for years, but I remembered and sought out the name in the hopes that she would publish a book.  Well, when I finally caught up with her again, she had a best-selling novel under her belt.  I read Prep a few months ago and just finished ( Read more... )

That's right, we went to the movies three nights in a row this week.  Cuz that's the way we roll.  Today, I am taking a brief moment to appreciate the joys of being childless and free to leave the house on a whim.  And the joys of a spontaneous honey.

We saw Smart People at the Alamo Ritz.  It's too small--the old Alamo was much cooler.  The theater ( Read more... )

excuse me, wuz you sayin' somethin'?

uh-UH--you can't tell me NUTHin.

*

Pretty things are coming into our house.  We picked up our second wedding present yesterday--a trifle bowl.  I've been waiting 15 years to make trifle in a properly beautiful way.  Trifle is a Christmas tradition in my family--my aunt started making it when I was young to explore our Welsh roots.  Fuck, it is good.

We talked ourselves into this vase ( Read more... )

Last night I made asparagus soup and warm dandelion greens with roasted garlic dressing.  Meanwhile Josh made the legendary LBTs, or Alterna-BLTs.  We didn't definitively name them.  Leeks, Brie, and Tomato on English Muffins.  Oh, they are good.  I am craving them again already.  Jodi and Josh really really liked the soup, but I wasn't so sure.  ( Read more... )

Last night was fun.  I think the building and seeing Mike Henry perform were the highlights for me.  The winners deserved to win, though there was very little doubt that they would indeed win.  Well, all the number 1 seeds made it to the final four, too.  After six years of studying the performance of poetry, I am in desperate need of a surprise ( Read more... )

1. My username is _____ because ____.
"Kangaroos, sequins, chocolate sodas!" is possibly my favorite line of poetry ever.   It's from a Frank O'Hara poem called "Today."  I discovered it in a beautiful book of paintings and poems put together by Kenneth Koch called "Talking to the Sun."  My friend Rebecca pulled it out from under her dorm room bed ( Read more... )

I got the go-ahead by my two most trusted advisors to STOP working on Pinsky and START working on Billy Collins.  After fifteen long, mostly weary months, I am starting CHAPTER TWO!  I almost wept with gratitude during my meeting today.  I may graduate after all ( Read more... )

Lobdell and Phyllis Exline, married for over 60 years, did not give a lot of advice.  But all the sudden, in the middle of explaining how they met and where they'd lived in the early years of their marriage, Phyllis said.

"We never mentioned divorce."
Her husband agreed they'd never discussed the idea.

"Murder, maybe," said Phyllis.  "But never ( Read more... )