Hi Darling Ones, One of my Tea Lady friends is taking a class at The Loft, which means I got to share with them my all-time favorite piece of criticism I ever got. It’s not the note pictured above. I’ll get to that in a second. I don’t think theres photographic evidence of my favorite thing ever written on one of my short stories. Instead,…
Hey Darling Ones, Do you know where you were on this very day 28 years ago? What were you doing that day? I was in Hibbard Hall at The Spectator office waiting for Sister #2 and my not-yet-brother-in-law to bring me the new Pearl Jam CD. I must have had class on Tuesday morning because Sister #2 is the one who ventured to Best Buy…
Dear Darling Ones, I’ve been thinking about Influencers today because I read a Buzzfeed listicle about shitty, entitled Influencers who wanted free things because of their influence. Barf. Influencer culture fascinates me in a rubber-necking an accident on the side of the road kind of way. I know what it is and yet I don’t get why any sane, rational person would follow an Influencer…
Hi Darling Ones, Wendell decided at 9:36 this morning that sleeping time was over. You can see I captured the moment for posterity. At first I was affronted by his rudeness and demands for affection. But then I realized he was saving me from one of my most annoying recurring dreams, a mashup about my trust issues with my mom and my anger with Sister…
Dear Darling Ones, I turned all the rotten bananas chilling in my freezer into banana bread today. I needed the hit of smug superiority along with feelings of productivity and also taking care of myself. Flossing and banana bread are the two things guaranteed to fill me with sanctimony. So does taking the high road in most situations, however I hate when my high road…
Hi Darling Ones, Yesterday I was a twenty-two-year-old dum dum in Eau Claire with hot plans to use her financial aid money to get a tattoo at that place on Water Street and then celebrating that bonehead move by drinking bloody marys for dinner. After all, I had already made the choice between actual food and a tattoo. And who says that a pickle and…
Dear Darling Ones, When Sister #2 was here in August I complained a little bit about the library. I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite about this, because I really do love the library more than any other institution on the planet. However, within the last year or so, my teeny local Scott County Library eBook/audiobook app joined up with the larger Twin…
Dear Darling Ones, There have been unceasing levels of crankiness in the air around me for like a week now. I’m not entirely sure what my problem is. Maybe my uterus is preparing to shed its lining, which will make me super angry. Maybe it’s the cool but humid and cloudy weather. Maybe I’m grouchy for no reason and I’m trying to tie it to…
Dear Darling Ones, You know that parable about boiling a frog? The one that says if you drop a frog in boiling water it jumps out right away, but if you put it in cold water slowly heating to a boil you can murder the frog because it adapts to its environment. I feel this way about the music of The Jayhawks, but without the…
Hi Darling Ones, Sometime this weekend I started reading Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon–And the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller. I’m kind of ambivalent about it thus far because I have read a lot about these three women and so there is not a lot of brand-new-to-me information. There’s some new info, like Joni Mitchell’s first husband was kind…
