Rant alert.

So, I managed to get another family visit over and done with last weekend, and I’m exhausted.

Granted, I’m always exhausted anyway due to my little parasitic peanut. But visiting family always makes whatever state I’m in worse. At least this time there were no screaming, crying arguments.

Let me see if I can break it down for you ( Read more... )

Four years ago I had a miscarriage. Actually, I didn’t miscarry, per se. The baby died at 12 weeks but I didn’t know it until four weeks later, and only then because the ultrasound discovered it to be true. My uterus had continued to grow, inexplicably. All the symptoms were still there. But baby? Dead. All that time. She just didn’t want to let go ( Read more... )

It was 7:30 p.m.  The evening stumbled home with its tie undone and the moon’s teeth marks were on the sky. I was shivering as I ambled down the desolate street. It was colder than a well digger’s ass.

A thin and tattered bum hollered religious rhetoric on the corner as I passed.

“Just see if you can come up with a figure that matches your faith ( Read more... )

I don’t often go to my husband’s gigs because they’re usually on weeknights and I need at least eight hours of sleep to function properly. Plus, I kind of like the time alone his nightly outings afford me.

But this past weekend he had a rare Saturday gig, so I went because it’s fun to watch him play. He’s a great drummer.

Working musicians don’ ( Read more... )

It’s the fourth of July, about 7:30 p.m. I'm downstairs in the studio fussing with an art project, when my husband comes in lamenting about the fact that Lila, our golden retriever, has run off again.

In an attempt to keep her from running off, we just finished installing an underground electric fence that gives her a zap when she goes near the ( Read more... )

Those who know me well would probably not characterize me as a risk-averse person. I’ve traveled to third-world countries alone, accepted job offers that require major life upheaval, and taken on high-responsibility work that I didn’t know how to do. I enjoy a challenge. And I’m pretty confident that I can step up and succeed in most situations.

( Read more... )

In high school, I did not experience the sensation of having a large group of friends with whom to hang out. Instead, I was one of those girls who had, at any given moment, just a spattering of tenuous acquaintances and one best friend.

That one best friend was usually manipulative and needy.

Now, granted, I was pretty insecure in those days. ( Read more... )

Like everyone, my perspective on life is informed by things I have done, people I have met, places I’ve been. I am a collection of all my life experiences.

I am also fundamentally unpatriotic. I don’t care about flags.

I think borders are arbitrary devices for dividing human culture, sometimes tragically so.

~

To say that Canadians have a ( Read more... )

I first learned to bend myself into a pretzel at the age of five.

My parents were hippies (that is, they were scraggly-haired, bell-bottomed, pot-smokin’ young people, in keeping with the times - times that have long since passed). I guess yoga seemed like a groovy thing to do. So one day, suddenly, we started stretching and breathing and ( Read more... )

I was six years old when I got my first pair of glasses. The frames were square, brown and plastic. I was not impressed.

At first I tried my best to wear them all the time. My parents had, after all, bought them for me to help. And we didn’t have much money so I was acutely aware of the sacrifice. But I just hated them. The glasses, I mean. And to ( Read more... )