it’s 5:32 and for the next five minutes i will be daydreaming about pete yorn, because his voice is like maple syrup and he has really nice arms.

mom was surprised, and i couldn’t stop taking pictures of her 100-watt smile. one by one her friends came up to greet her and when tita linda came up, they kept hugging and laughing and shrieking and hugging again. tears filled my mom’s eyes, and i got teary-eyed, too. i was pacing and shaking. so […]

coffee, pancakes and mushroom omelettes, followed by a drive by the ocean. picnics on the sand. deep breaths held for ten seconds. oh, my legs are so pale. i watched squirrels dart in and out of a flower bed on the cliff, and i imagined what it must be like to have rows of flowers […]

sooner or later you just have to laugh because there is a big, gaping hole in your living room ceiling and you don’t know where it leads. this morning, you woke up and heard raindrops and you started to get excited to wear your new raincoat, but when you looked out the window the pavement […]

books on tape are my new favorite roadside companions. why hadn’t i thought of this before? they make early morning and late evening commutes enjoyable. even traffic doesn’t bother me, because i am hanging on words and imagining places far away from where i am. lisaann lent me the secret history by donna tart, and […]

some people, unfortunately, missed the whole point. i know that imitation is a form of flattery, and i know a girl using my words as her own is probably her way of saying she knows exactly how i feel and couldn’t have said it better herself, but when i see my words on somebody else’s […]

her legs, encased in a black cotton-spandex blend, were like two twigs, and i thought they might bend the wrong way and break, causing the rest of her body parts to fall onto the pavement. –somewhere around the silver lake, los angeles

kenny is the first crush in my memory. i chased him around the blacktop because i wanted to give him a kiss — on the cheek, mind you. (simple minds, simple pleasures.) i wish i could be as brazen as i was back then. i don’t chase boys, anymore. i just stare at them from […]

three years ago today i launched my first website, a string of purple pages and sloppy code. a handful of people read it and only a few of those people really knew me. i didn’t know i would last this long. i didn’t really stop to think about it at all. i read the stuff […]

this morning, i got up before the sun. i remembered all these things i’d meant to do last night before watching bits and pieces of chungking express and falling asleep with the telephone beside me. Responsible Things, like paying bills and getting my oil changed and putting the dishes away. things i couldn’t ignore, not […]

i went for a drive today, rolled my windows down and turned the volume up and cruised on sunset boulevard. i was alone, but sitting shotgun were three cameras: a holga, a polaroid, a digital. i didn’t really have a destination in mind. i just knew that it was a holiday and the sky was […]

last night, strawberry pocky and e-mail in bed. it was so quiet, and i’d forgotten how much i enjoy that. quiet and stillness. being alone. i dreamt that rima moved all of the house plants. i was about to get angry until i noticed that they were thriving in the corner of the house. i […]

if i were a boy, i’d go to the short stop on saturday nights because the ratio of the sexes works in your favor. when the lights go down and the volume goes up, the coats come off and all you see is shoulders and napes and thighs gleaming in the light. hair shakes like […]

i am tired, but i want to tell you about today: scarlet shaded bridesmaid gowns, zippers that won’t slide up, a rainbow of flip-flops, pricetags that make us laugh, photographs of hands and purple walls, deep bowls of soup and refills of coffee, giggles and whispers, raising voices and wiping tears. tonia can always make […]

a lady with silver-white hair growled at the family and then wheeled her cart around the corner. she’d said something about the young boy being Trouble; he was riding on the bottom rack of the shopping cart. “why did she say that, mommy?” the boy asked, puzzled. “oh, she is just a lady who feels […]

sometimes, and i have to be honest with you, i ask myself: “did i really write that?” i don’t know whether i should be embarrassed or disgusted or glad or proud. i am just struck by disbelief that those words landed on the page at all.

girl, it’s not about leading a life of adventure or spilling magical tales. it’s not about impressing them with big words or fancy tricks. it’s not about trying too hard to be whatever it is you think they want you to be. they might say it is, but don’t listen to them. they are just […]

i am taking guitar lessons, and i feel like i am 7 all over again, playing two-line tunes that make chopsticks sound like a symphony. i read the notes on the page and i know how they should sound, but my fingers stumble and find the wrong string, instead. my hands are not used to […]

the lovely lady who brought my favorite dream-keeping website, sleeptrip, to life has finally launched her latest crushworthy project, 300 love letters. (and we all know that i am a big fan of letters.) here’s an excerpt: “So I’m not going to tell you what we could be, cause I don’t know what we could […]

the homeless lady who appeared from behind a parking meter snarled at me: “call up your husband and tell him you’ve got an army with you. they can’t take the japanese girl away.” –sunset strip, hollywood, calif.