M and I booked a cabin in the West Virginia woods for our sixth anniversary trip. Although this was a luxury cabin, fully equipped with modern conveniences, certain words should have tipped us off that we were headed for trouble:

1. cabin
   
2. woods
   
3. anniversary + trip
   

Nothing involving these words in any combination has ever worked out very well for us ( Read more... )

A handwritten note on the soda fountain at my local Exxon Shop:

NO ICE
SORRY
MANAGEMENT

I have another job interview coming up, this time with the Maryland State Law Library. The day I got the call for that one, I also got my letter from the Provost, whose unfortunate duty was to inform me that my current appointment would be ending on June 1, 2005. I hope to have my last look at this place in my rearview mirror long before that ( Read more... )

Will I be this month's lucky winner in the exciting Jobbo drawing? Can't win if you don't play! Had my first serious interview some time back and was passed over in favor of a guy who is widely described as not all there. What happened? Did they find out about my drinking spells? Were my salary requirements too high? Did my references hose me? ( Read more... )

They moved me from a private office to a cube. I like it. My office was a mess anyway. It was depressing in there. For years, they kept giving me paper, which I would look at and then put on a pile in my office somewhere. Then some of the piles fell over. Other piles are covering mouse-chewed cracker packets. I have to shovel all that crap out ( Read more... )

It's hard to see a goose that is sitting in the dirt.

There's a lot of stuff in my gut
That I can't seem to get rid of
I wish the whole universe could absorb
Because it's so much bigger
Unless I take the time
All this stuff will be mine
For the rest of my stuff life

Taxi! Taxidermy me!

OK, my usual Holiday funk that begins after Hallowe'en has culminated, as of a few weeks ago, in my usual March meltdown, and now I'm back on the upswing. Had some thoughts about spirals and cycles and seasons on the 8th anniversary of the breakup of my first marriage, which was the day before yesterday. Gotta watch out for winter. Winter and ( Read more... )

OK: It was not the Writer's Market but the confusingly similar Writer's Handbook that alerted me to the Homeless Reporter-Newssheet. And there are no dollar signs next to it because there are no dollar signs next to anything in the Writer's Handbook. Also, the Homeless paper pays in copies. It does print love stories, though. So if I get " ( Read more... )

I'm flipping through Writer's Market and noticing a few things:

1. The higher a magazine pays, the more $s are next to it.
   
2. All other things being equal, I am more interested in magazines denoted with more $s.
   
3. The magazines with lots of $s look hard to get into. Harper's says it's not a venue for beginning writing, or even intermediate writing. They ( Read more... )