Kindergarten was a good year for me. I made some wonderful friends that year. And the one who has really stuck be me, remaining my best friend for seventeen years and counting, is Julie Michelle Vaughan (formerly Valent-Bolduc... far right in the photo). Living so far from a friend is…
Rules of War
"Would you like a lesson, sir, in the rules of war?" When a cruel green-eyed captain snarls these words at Mel Gibson in The Patriot, he is standing an arm's length away behind a carefully aimed pistol. And this is only moments after he has ordered his troops to execute…
Gertrude Stein
A bay area poet of the generation before ours and before our parents', Gertrude Stein stood out even in her controversial environment. She was a friend of Picasso (his portrait of her is on the left), and to other artists of the day. And her poetry maintains its value as…
Odd Thoughts
The crunch of the apple and the tang of its skin makes me smile, makes me laugh, makes me drink the ripe in. This is me in a sunbeam on a not-so-hot day looking for something to inspire my play. There's a bonnie bright sky bellowing blue overhead, herding the…
Pumpkin Day 2005
October Sundays are so beautiful. My favorites, in fact. Jon and I have been planning for today for a long time. It's a tradition of ours to drive out to Half Moon Bay to pick out our pumpkins. There's a pumpkin patch on the way into town, a darling little…
100
(((Trumpets and Cheering))) This is my one hundredth blog entry. Thank you, thank you. You're too kind. When I began this journal in May of this year, I don't think I really believed it would last longer than a month or so. I have a notoriously short attention span. But…
Is it contagious?
It's like a sick circle. On Monday I collapsed backwards into my bed immediately upon waking up. BAM! I was so sick. I think I called my mom and mumbled something about a cough... a fever... prickles on the bottoms of my feet. That's when I really know I'm sick.…
The Name Game
What you are about to read may easily be mistaken for a discussion between third graders at recess. Do not be fooled. It is actually a discussion, practically verbatim, between my ultra mature husband and the ever-adult me. Again, please don't freak out. As long as we've been together we've…