Patience

I have been working on the virtue of patience my entire life and I have to say, I haven't gotten very far. Anyone who thinks I have, who thinks I'm very patient, who thinks I am the very essence of delayed gratification, doesn't see the subtle machinations I have put in place to make that illusion possible.

For one thing, there are the books. Waiting for a cab? I have a book. Doctor's office? Book. A friend is running late? Am I ever mad? No. I had a book. Read more about Patience

Caroline

Last night, before heading up to our District's election party, my friend Sarajane and I stopped by the medical cannabis party where another friend of mine, Margo Polley, gave a talk about our mutual friend Caroline Welch. Caroline's life was not all about medical cannabis - it was about a great many other things - but in the last months of that life medical cannabis was added to her list of causes. For good cause. Here is my friend Margo, talking about our friend Caroline: Read more about Caroline

Still the Same

Following is a letter from an ex-fiancee' and ruminations on past and present states of mind. The present herein referred to is actually 2007, when I first wrote about this, and the sciatica is long gone. Cured, I do truly believe, by a mule-back ride halfway down the Grand Canyon and back. But that belief may, in itself, corroborate my daughter's summation: Read more about Still the Same

Champaine Beige

Somewhere in my archives there is a promo pic for a stripper who called herself Champaine Biege, signed "Love, Champaine." It is a beautiful picture, and she is a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, this picture is not worth a thousand words.

I met Champaine when "Grampa" got out of prison. I don't even know Grampa's story - or if I ever did, I've forgotten it now. There was a "Grandma" - an older woman who hung out at the local biker bar, and when Grampa got out of prison, there was a huge party. Grandma was right there at the center of it, the good 'ol lady standing by her ol' man. Read more about Champaine Beige

For Vicki, Wherever You Are

Last Monday was 1978. Moving ahead a couple of years, I believe I am in Seattle for the first time, receiving a card from my friend Vicki - a beautiful card, dated 2.26.80 - with a wonderful picture of a woman in a clown suite, wearing a green hat, and a face composed of the night sky, also reflected around her, but with a rainbow in the center. She holds a mask of a beautiful woman's face. The card reads, "If you're afraid of the dark...remember the night rainbow." Read more about For Vicki, Wherever You Are

Mystery Quotes

This from the archives. And now that I read it over, I'm thinking that the quote below could only have been written by HST. So why did some guy named Ed Meece write it down on a scrap of paper, and why do I still have it 30 years on?

"I have no idea who wrote the following. 'Twasn't me. Could be a fella name of Ed Meece, whose name sounds vaguely familar and which actually appears at the bottom of the second little tiny sheet of note paper on which was written the following: Read more about Mystery Quotes

Little Pink Houses

You may recall from a previous confession that sometime in the 1980's, convinced that the man I thought I loved could never really love me, I ran off with a No Good Boyfriend with a local motorcycle club which shall remain nameless here.

A club composed of a bunch of bikers can make strange (I want to say bedfellows here, but that could give a wilder impression than was actually the fact - only one of the "club" guys was actually a bedfellow). Read more about Little Pink Houses

More Than

Back when I was submitting chapters of to my writer's group, one set of criticisms from my fellow women writers set me back on my heels a bit.

Not only was my heroine not very kick-ass, an issue I addressed in another post. Even worse, she was too caring, too solicitous of others, too accepting of a traditional woman's role. She cooked too much. Read more about More Than