Haven't mentioned it previously, but now that I'm here, I will: I'm on Long Island for the holidays. After the year I've had, despite the stupid amount of money it costs, I decided that I really wanted to see my family. So as I type, I'm sitting in bed at my brother and sister-in-law's house on Long Island, and am very glad to be here ( Read more... )

It's clearly holiday time because All the Gatherings are gathering.

On Friday night, I kept a promise to see SL play with her band, Vixy & Tony at the Wayward Coffeehouse. It was their new CD release party. They played two sets, a combination of original music, covers, and filks. (It's the first time I've ever heard a mash-up of the Mahnah Mahnah ( Read more... )

Baby, it's cold outside It's finally feeling like winter. Am I celebrating? No. It's just . . . well, it's December and it's finally cold. Reality is catching up with the conceptual template of our calendar. I may not have enough warm clothes of the proper size to wear this season. I really do need to clean up the bedroom, shop in my closet and see ( Read more... )

I've been looking for creative outlets the last couple of months, things that are deliberately not writing, because writing is really loaded for me right now. There is no way I will not write fiction again, but right now it's so freighted with stuff for me that it's just on hold. I've turned my attentions to painting and making jewelry ( Read more... )

Dr. Strange: Saw the movie last night in the company of SA. Absolutely stunning visually. Interesting, compelling origin story. Cumberbatch, Ejiofor, Swinton and Mikkelsen were all terrific. I love Ejiofor's diction and delivery; I could listen to him forever. I also loved--in a peculiar way--the make-up effects used on the eyes of Dormammu's ( Read more... )

I went to what was billed as an "expressive painting" class last night. The teacher is an art therapist. She wasn't there to be a therapist to the class, so much as she was there to facilitate our creativity. I painted for more than 90 minutes. Based on last night's dreams, things were unearthed ( Read more... )

What the ever-loving f*ck? I went to bed reading the writing on the wall and yet still hoping that a last minute surge by Clinton in the states that hadn't yet been called would make a difference. It didn't happen. And so here we are. I'm still assimilating this reality. I'll post more coherent thoughts later. I think. Good G-d.

The to-do list: I made a "To do" list this morning. It has 16 things on it. I've done four. They were time-consuming, but they are done. I still, however, am staring 12 things to do in the face. I am comforted by the fact that some of these things are things I can't do on a Sunday. Some require leaving the house (I'm still in my nightshirt and ( Read more... )

It's storm season in Seattle. Most people think of Seattle as Rain City, but when people think of rain, they think of how it rains wherever they live; I did, when I first moved here. As it happens, I moved here during the rainy season, and my first rainstorm here was epic, a very New York sort of storm, so strong that you couldn't see out a car ( Read more... )

Tonight is Kol Nidre, the holiest night in the Jewish calendar, the night that begins Yom Kippur--the Day of Atonement. I am not at synagogue tonight and won't be tomorrow because I didn't plan properly. I had dinner around sunset; technically my fast has begun. And so I'm thinking hard about trespasses and forgiveness. And other stuff ( Read more... )