Outrageous Ramona

Every September 16th, a day before my birthday, I celebrate my Grandmother Ramona who died nine years ago this fall. She was a feminist, a writer, often times a nudist, an invisible hostess and a woman I spent many hours with as the youngest granddaughter of six by something like ten years. My grandfather was [...]

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Life Update: In Case You Were Getting A Hankering

My mom brought it to my attention recently that I haven’t blogged in a while. My short-form writing (read: Tweets) have been very healthy as of late, but longer pieces that actually require a little bit of thought have been wanting. It’s not like there hasn’t been anything going on. Quite the opposite: there’s been [...]

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The Starving Artist Solves the Problem

I read this story today on Chris Guillebeau’s blog, The Art of Non-Conformity: Paul was an artist, painting in several mediums and styles. He lived in a Northwestern city known for its love of the arts, if not always its ambition. As Paul grew up, his family and teachers encouraged him to pursue art as [...]

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Pay To Make it Happen

Everything about a graduate education feels right. I’ve been sitting on my hands for the past seven and a half months in preparation for this. And I’m not a patient person. A graduate degree, someone who’s also heading there told me recently, is a way to bypass working your way up through the ranks of [...]

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What to Do Instead of Getting Mad: Get Productive (?)

I found out yesterday that the apartment in which I’ve been residing for the past four months (yep, that’s is) is no longer going to be mine come April 1st. My roommates – a couple in their mid-20′s – have decided they’d like to live alone again. Apparently now they can afford it. Yesterday, when [...]

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Eclipsing The BS

Is it us on the inside that makes us happy or our place in the world at the moment?  I tried to hash this out a bit with a friend last night, but reached no major conclusions. My argument: My state of happiness over the past few years has been largely determined by what I’ve [...]

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Customer Service FAIL: Virgin Mobile

I’ve gone into this before and I’ll go into it again. What is it with wireless customer service and their endless, epic failures?  I tried the old “Help” option to get a live representative on the phone.  After simply saying “Help” seven or eight times and prompting my mother to peek her head out the [...]

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Stuck. This Moment.

It’s the last Saturday night before Christmas, 2010.  Every part of me believes I should be at a party right now.  What type of party, I don’t know.  But Kay Jewelers and Lexus have firmly imprinted in my mind the concept of holiday festivities and lavish gifting.  Sitting in a coffee shop alone does not [...]

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The Hedonism Challenge

I look myself in the eye and say, “What a beautiful girl.”  My breath steams with sincerity, even in the icy cold of the bathroom and I say the words again.  This time my voice begins to break and my eyes fill with tears, growing full and wide. It’s early.  Much too early for me [...]

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Inaccurately Quoted Perhaps… But Accurate

” … the rule has been to never see the same stud three nights. One night is forgot like a fart, two like a pang, but after three nights lain together there is a hurt, and to soothe the hurt there will be night four, and five, and nights unnumbered. The heart’s in it then, [...]

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