The Melting World

My friend Elizabeth pointed out that it is National Corduroy Day. 11-11-11 looks most like it, is all. In honor of this wonderful holiday, I am re-posting a link to my short-short called THE TROUSERS, which is my homage to the nubby fabrik we all secretly love. Get that special pair out, pull ’em on […]

  This time I had a job cleaning tables for Hollywood. At the tables sat Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Richard Gere, and some other famous person I don’t think about in the waking world (I don’t think about any of them, actually, so it frightens me they represent some icon in my subliminal mindscape). They […]

  Apparently, it takes quite a few months for me to sit down a post something here. Our turtle speed Internet at home is the most likely target for this delay and the fact that with a new job, etc…blah blah blah, so many reasons. Well, get on with it then, no more excuses. I […]

He used the red “walker” for a while until he got used to the idea–he’s at the Depot, an indoor rink that was once a train station and has a zamboni shaped like a steam engine. What’s not to love, then, T-chan must wonder. Now he begging me to buy him skates and he wants […]

RECIPE TO AVOID HATE The recipe to avoid hate isn’t complex. A few basic ingredients: clean water, food, shelter, sweaters, and daily hugs. Add generous spoonfuls of humor, compassion for broken spirits, respect for the co-existence of insects. Cultivate the seedlings of self-love with care. Upon dark occasion, sprinkle with red pepper and pour pure […]

My son commandeered the navigation through the woof and weave of the New York subway system. The few times  I tried to “help out,” we ended up on the wrong platform or even once on an express train toward Rockaway. Okay, I was quite useful once–when the trip required a bus detour due to a […]

One benefit of having time off is that I can feel wholly myself again. I can wake up at midnight and write until 4am and not feel terrible the next day because–ah, it’s so lovely–I can take a nap in the middle of the day! I can dream freely and re-discover my passions and possibilities. […]

My son has discovered the beauty of Michael Jackson’s voice.  Granted, it’s been over a week of T-chan listening continuously to an extended DJ mix of MJ’s music that my husband had downloaded whenever we were driving about in the car. Yet, finally, a few nights ago, when the car had stopped, but the music […]

I came across T-chan, age 7, reading Robert Bly’s book, Morning Poems. He read silently, his mouth shaping out the words. It’s the first time I ever noticed him reading one of my books. It makes me wonder what else he has been reading when I wasn’t around. I am so proud of him. A […]

Spent last weekend in NYC–first trip without T-chan and Hubbie since my whirlwind trip to interview for a job in Hokkaido over 7 years ago. Went with K under the excuse of reading our work at Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village, which we did (honestly), but most of the time we were just […]

I used to think it’s the perfect drink for me, absinthe. Wormword, fennel, and green anise: the holy trinity for fallen Catholics. Absenta in Spanish. The Green Fairy. But I feared the nausea, the fainting spells, the bloated stomach, the rumored madness, and truths I might let loose from my lips and never reign back […]

There is no there there. The room is here and they live inside it. The ceiling seems the loneliest place of all, a barren land where a spider nests in a corner and the music of dried insect shells tingles in its threads. The walls act as four barriers to the outside. Each muffles the […]

It’s early afternoon Sunday. My 7-year old son and I are parked at a local café. He’s happy with his purple Tootsie pop and I’m happy with my cappuccino frothing over in a black ceramic mug. He’s drawing elaborate houses in his Gomi Taro Scribbles book. Occasionally, I am asked to draw specific appliances and […]

Dudes in the room

My son in his beloved wildflower garden and bird sanctuary, which is only 20 minutes away from our house. He bounces down the winding wood-chip paths like an exuberant rabbit and he makes sure to cover every stretch of the 2-square miles of enclosed park land.  It is small enough to feel I can’t lose […]

We rode the Brown Line (befittingly) on the L our last day in Chicago. Our son was in train heaven (also my husband looks pretty happy, too; but he also looks like he’s about to give our son a surprise squeeze in this picture, if you ask me). Afterward when we told our son we […]

“Hi!”…well, it’s been far too long since I last posted here–and I really miss being able to carve a few moments where I could write to the universe now and again (as I see this blog, since I have no idea who, if anyone reads it–besides me). I have created a life without wiggle room […]

This 45 minute round trip re-ignited my son’s slumbering passion for trains.

Last Saturday our small family dedicated ourselves to trains, trains, and then more trains. We first headed to Bandana Square, which back in my childhood had been quite the fancy shopping mall (inside restored train yard buildings), but today the area has dwindled down to a hotel, empty warehouse space, and, most pertinently, the Twin […]