Month: January 2005

  • January 2005 Books

    January 1, 2005 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer A book of short stories I received from my mom for Christmas. I liked the voice very much even though a couple of the stories seemed very similar to one another; they weren’t connected but they seemed to have the same cast of characters with different…

  • A Happy And Fulfilling Life

    April 1986: During a fire drill at a meeting of my secret club, called, ingeniously, Paradise Fun Club, I elect not to jump over the side of the treehouse in full adherence to the previously-agreed-upon Fire Drill Procedure, which went something like this: make way calmly to trap door in treehouse; climb down ladder; alight…

  • Ways Things Might Have Been Different

    July 1989 When my parents tell me about their decision to finally formally divorce, I weepily insist that I want to live with my father in Manhattan. He agrees, and I move up there for the ninth grade school year, into the new apartment he has to get so I can have my own room.…

  • Quotidian Tasks

    Normally I am not much of one for the pleasures of the home or the satisfactions of housekeeping, but here I am sitting at the living room table, quietly delighting in this afternoon in my house. It’s very comforting to be here. iTunes has been playing all my favorite songs this afternoon and the kitchen…

  • Bellydance Vs. Latin Dance Aerobics: Compare and Contrast

    Venue Bellydance: At a local community center where, on your way upstairs, you pass some Irish dancers and then some other people with glockenspiels and jingle bells or something that I’m not totally sure what they do except it involves rhythmic hopping. There is a nice art gallery upstairs right by our room. Hardwood floors…

  • I’m Thinking About

    I am thinking that I very much enjoyed the manicure and pedicure I got yesterday when my mom was in town (although if I had to choose between them then pedicure is the obvious winner) but I can’t get over this weird feeling of guilt I have about paying someone to rub my feet and…

  • Impromptattoo

    So, seriously now. What am I going to do about the thirtieth-birthday tattoo thing? I know I have mentioned it here before but now I have no idea where or when in the archives so please trust me. Anyway, it was all fine and good when I was just a twenty-eight year old slip of…

  • Snow Day

    Today when I woke up I looked out the window and there was snow. I sprang into action and ran down to the basement and got out my warm hiking clothes from 1996, including my hated teal long underwear, and wrapped up and headed to the store for some oatmeal and a lightbulb for the…

  • Probability and Statistics

    The thing is, I said to her, the thing is that you can’t tell people that you don’t think you’ll ever fall in love again or even date or do anything with anyone ever again. People think you’re fishing for a compliment, like they’re supposed to go “Oh GIRL what do you MEAN of COURSE…

  • Malaise

    I am sorry to report that I am still sick. Not quite sick enough to justify skipping work, necessarily, but sick enough to have a bright red nose and to need to drink a lot of tea. I can breathe through my nose a little bit now but I fear it’s only because the mucus…

  • Resting Up

    Thursday at work I was telling someone we could have lunch on Friday and she looked at me and was like, “Uh, it’s the holiday, we have off” and I was like “What? But the calendar doesn’t say…” and she was like “ But it’s New Year’s Eve,” and I was like “Okay, I believe…