Kaffeeklatsch

So, I was looking at a calendar just now, and realized that tomorrow is May 5th.

And a little light went off in this aging cranium, as I wondered why that was so significant.--read more

Yesterday was my last day at work, I'm officially a SAHM again. This is mostly due to the fact that I was terrible at the job and miserable about it.--read more

I.M. Town is a story. these people are main characters.

Caroline: the actress. Soul card: The Hierophant.

Tia: oldest one. Soul card: The Hierophant.--read more

My Valentine's Day present to JJ was a bag full of goodies that cannot be discussed on a family forum. The girls got bouquets of flowers from their daddy. And I got three hours to myself at a writing workshop featuring Kim Stafford.

I haven't been to a writing workshop in 25 years. That last time, I embarrassed myself so thoroughly with my own pomposity that I couldn't face doing another one and have actively avoided the teacher (a fairly prominent regional novelist) assiduously ever since.

One of the prompts was to write a love poem about the most beloved inanimate object in our houses. Since I have fibromyalgia, that would be my Tempurpedic bed, which I worship. Here is the poem:

Oh, bed. Oh, my bed.
In winter, you are comically hard when I first slip into you
Needing my heat to soften you to the point where you don't feel like a frozen board
Like I'm lying on the tundra, the permafrost
But oh, my bed
When you warm under my body, you mold around me and hold me up
All flannel and warmth, reflected back, my own warmth captured and transmitted into softness
And next to me, under the down and chenille
My boy, drowsy and moaning in his sleep
His mouth so soft and childlike and the little gray patch in his beard
I turn over on my side, careful of the box in my chest that keeps my heart from stopping
And you hold me up another night and let me sleep
Oh, my bed.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all.

I'm getting old. I can tell, because silly things make me cry.

Today, for instance, I got a notice that someone had looked at my profile on classmates.com. Went and looked; it was an old boyfriend of sorts who'd looked me up before, no big thing. But elsewhere on the page, I saw a name, a name I'd sorta been looking for, a name I'd even googled once. For here, I'll call him A. He was...well, I never really said it before today, not even to myself, but he was my first love.

A was brilliant. I mean, really brilliant. I mean, I'm smart and I felt slow around him. I mean, he didn't take calculus in high school; he helped teach calculus. He was sweet. And he was beautiful. Stunningly, amazingly, unconsciously, heartbreakingly beautiful. As much as I love my husband, and as handsome as he is--and friends, my boy is darling--A remains the most beautiful boy I have ever seen. Green eyes, golden hair, swimmers body, perfect teeth. And he liked me, for a little while at least. He was the first boy who ever asked me out, and I worshipped the ground he walked on.

Of course, it didn't end well.

One of my greatest regrets in life is that I had the chance to kiss him, for him to be the first boy I ever kissed, and I blew it. I was in his arms, and we were saying goodnight, and I went to kiss him but I was so nervous I kissed his cheek. And then the moment was gone and I never got another one.

For all I know, he's gay. For all I know, I was just something to pass the time when he came home from college (he was two years older). For all I know, the embarrassed look he gave me as his sneering best friend drove them away the last time I saw him wasn't embarrassment but shame. For all I know, he's never thought of me once since. For all I know, he's thought of me as often as I've thought of him, but I doubt it.

I just wrote him a quick note via classmates. I don't expect to hear back, so I told him what I needed to tell him: That he had been so special to me, and that I hoped he was well and happy.

And now I'm sitting here crying. I'm nearly 47 years old and I'm crying over a boy from high school. I'm getting old.

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
It feels so great! Pretty soon i won't be ten. In nine months, i'll
be ELEVEN! I'm so excited! But today, was I.M.T.s prime moment!--read more

We got an HDTV a couple of weeks ago; our old tube TV bit the dust much earlier than we expected. Tonight John got a DTV antenna for it so we can watch digital off the air. We'll be getting digital cable once the new paycheck kicks in, but for now this is good.

And we're sitting here like a couple of stoners watching Conan O'Brien going, "Dude! Check out the detail on the background! Omigod! the couch cushions! Do we have any Doritos?"

Apart from that, I haven't seen Conan in a while, and I've heard that during the writers' strike (go writers) that he's really smokin' funny--just basically being Conan. And maybe it's the stoner thing from the DTV, or maybe he's just hilarious, because...he is smokin' funny. My stomach hurts from laughing.

He's a frickin' brilliant entertainer, and if you haven't checked him out lately, you should. He may even be *funnier* without writers. I mean, right now he's singing rockabilly, really playing the guitar, with Japanese subtitles. You hadda be there, but I'm glad I was. I can't wait until he takes over the Tonight Show.

Plus also, Conan? The beard is working for you. Keep it after the strike.

Hi! I'm back! Long time no type! blah blah! I have so much to tell you. I'm not even sure where to start. Suffice it to say, to begin with, I'm feeling better. I haven't been depressed like this--when I wasn't sick or something--in a while.

It always seems to be, though, just before a major change in my life. This time around, it's in my creative life. I'm not ready to share the details of that, and may never be, but the short version is that I finally broke through to something I've been trying to do for a very long time. (More after the cut.)--read more

Courtesy my buddies at the Merc, I present to you, the most awesome Beatles/Led Zep cover band ever: The Beatnix, doing "Stairway to Heaven" Beatles-style. No, srsly.

Hi. --read more

Our church had it's "hanging of the greens" this past weekend. Out came the ceramic nativity set and a three year old boy and his Grandma were helping carry the wise men into the sanctuary.--read more

Hello TNH friends. I can't believe how much time has passed since I've posted. Gosh! I miss you all!--read more

I was in bed last night, when i herd skiting, then a small explosion. I knew it wasn't our car that it crashed into. It was not very scary, probably thats because it happened before.--read more

I'm not going to liveblog Dancing with the Stars again this time, I'm just going to pop in now and again with some observations. I could NOT believe how well that Sabrina kid from the Cheetah Girls could dance! I don't think I've ever seen someone come straight out of the gate like that and barely put a foot wrong. She had the sparkle, she had the moves--she looked like it was week 8, not the very first show. If she hadn't put in that hiphop section she could have had straight 9s and maybe even a 10. I was blown away.

And is it just me, or does Disney have a lot of slightly chubby young women on its roster lately? And by slightly chubby I mean normal-looking non-anorexic girls. Sabrina, Raven-Simone, even Monique Coleman isn't bone-thin. I'm almost optimistic!

Or, very little play, anyway.

Since I started work in July I've not had a lot of down time. I've got a lot of unread email, unswept floors, unvacuumed carpets, and a neglected garden.--read more

Yesterday we all went to a Portland Beavers minor league baseball game. Josie and I had a blast, Lou and Daddy, not so much. Josie and I are baseball people, the other two are not.

We did it up right, singing the National Anthem and the 7th inning stretch at the top of our lungs, eating peanuts and keeping score in the program. I taught Jo what I knew about the game, since John wouldn't know what RBI was if it smacked him with a catcher's mitt. And to my delight, she likes it too and was genuinely interested in the goings-on. We're going back for the last home stand as a birthday present, just her and me.

We tried to raise some chickens this year. DD8 (then 7) brought one home from school after her class hatched them.--read more

CHAPTER 2

I love reading now, but I didn't always... When I was four or five, I touht Myself how to wrightte: E.T. and Josie.
after that I tryd to read. THE END, FOR NOW.

CHAPTER 1--read more

Wellcome to the Shuper Lou!, show. I am your hoste George! Lets talk to our heroes! holloe thuper Josie!
Josie: hi! George: what do you think of the show?--read more

dear Maliesa, Anhada, and other knitting-circol ladies: WE HAVE A POOL NOW!!! BRING YOUR BATHING-SUTES!!!
LOVE AND A 100000000001 HUGS

josie!

Suki began: du wesher ish shunny today. a shlight chansh of vampiyersh falling from the shky. hmm... I shmight make a tomato later on this week--oh-wellsh! --read more

At the school where I work, next week we are having a day when everyone has to come to school dressed as a character from a book.--read more

Littil girl's age's 4-7. Like's all toy's accept Bratz ( uggggahh ).
for interviw cantact: Lynn Siprelle or Josephin Ark.--read more