i am blaming everything on feng shui. i’m convinced that the arrangement of furniture and the layers of dust in my apartment are wreaking havoc on my life. i can’t breathe without sneezing, i can’t walk without stumbling. that is why i am going to scrub and mop and dust, i’m going to move and […]

i am back, i guess. i was gone and then i was back and then i was gone again. (remember? new york.) everything i did and saw, ate and smelled, felt and thought, was written in list form, as it happened or shortly thereafter, on green paper ricky and i bound with thread and glue. […]

1: buying medicine. rows of bottles of extracts of herbs. ancient remedies. patented formulas. pills behind clear plastic. liquid through brown glass. allergy releif. next time, please spellcheck your label. 2: making milkshakes. wrapped straws in my pockets and a leaning tower of styrofoam cups. rows of tubs of ice cream. (8.) no orders for […]

Today I had the urge to punctuate everything properly. I wrote a note to myself, capitalizing the first word of each sentence and all proper nouns. I did not abuse any semi-colons or dashes. I even left in the serial comma. It was strangely satisfying. I miss being edited. I miss red marks on the […]

i am going to new york in two weeks and i am both thrilled and terrified about this. the last time i was in there was fall two years ago, when i was stuck in a love triangle between a boy and the city. i didn’t have to choose: the boy left me and i […]

it’s a good thing i had my rain coat. i don’t normally have it within arm’s length, but it sprinkled last night and as i was leaving for the car wash at lunch time i glanced at it hanging on my cubicle wall and helen told me to bring it — just in case. it […]

i had forgotten all about dinner parties, about mismatched silverware and plates, bowls of warm food and glasses of cold beer, laughter and stories rising up to the dimly light ceiling. i had forgotten how much fun it can be, but tonight, i was reminded when a friend asked us over for dinner for pakistani […]

everything was sleep to me, today. the untouched patches of carpet in each empty cubicle. the endless roll of bubble wrap abandoned in the corner of the office. rosie thomas’s caramel voice oozing through my headphones. all i wanted was to sliver onto my carpet bed, lay my head on a bubble wrap pillow and […]

next stop: vegas. i am going to play nickel slots and drink free gin & tonics and flirt with cowboys. or maybe i will play babysitter to my little cousins, buy them ice cream cones and win them stuffed teddy bears. if i hit the jackpot, i will become a lady of leisure and perfect […]

my hope was handed back to me tonight by the tamale guy and it only cost $1.75. in the pool room, i sat and i watched the seconds become minutes become hours and wanted a tamale so badly. he always comes sometime after 1, and he always has enough cheese tamales for the gang, and […]