Lions and tigers and bears

OH MY! It has been weeks since I've posted. My schedule has gotten the best of me and I've been too tired and frustrated to blog. But I will...soon.

The Frog Prince

 

This is how it was that year, after four thousand

winters by the pond.  My brothers falling

from the Egyptian sky.  Bearing the blame

of skin disfigurations for a century.  Knees added

to witches’ broths with incantations.  The jelly

of our blood thickening lakewater.  I witness my misery

reflected in the mirrored eyes of a fly.

If you could have seen

my skin flashing celery-green in the

underwater of mornings, expertly

picking through the most delicate of mosquitoes

and minnows for my table. 

Four thousand and one winters. Surely

now you understand my coldness.

I’ve burrowed through the tangles

of your hair for the last time, dug

into that small frog-space, waited

to feel a breath of kindness from you.

Waited for you to take me under your

sheets, or warm me with your mouth. 

When you wake you’ll find I’ve

left like a thief, taking your precious

golden ball, your silk gloves, the claw-foot

bathtub.

What I did over summer vacation

I worked at the Graduate College, I went to New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas (drove through the Mojave Desert from LA to Vegas),presented research at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting, I got an acceptance from ASA's Contexts magazine, I read approximately 10 books of fiction, I finished the antique buffet that had been sitting in the garage. I did *not* brush up on my Spanish (although I did take the baby step of putting one CD on my iPod, then promptly skipped the lessons whenever they popped up), nor did I make vanilla.

The Spanish will just have to wait. I need a class or something, most likely. Or I should start watching telenovellas obsessively. The vanilla I am starting on TODAY! I have the vodka, I'm going down to the new health food place to find vanilla beans. So hopefully I'll have several cute bottles of vanilla in time for Christmas.

I had hoped to get much more done, but I'm fairly happy.

Oh Los Angeles, we leave you now

At the setting of your skies

As we leave the comfort of your ground

With your angels we will fly

And you held us in your city lights

When our eyes had lost the stars

And we made our peace with lonely nights

And you healed our broken hearts

Well they say the big one's gonna come

And you will fall into the sea

We will know that then your work is done

And your angels will go free...

And your angels will go free

{Peter Bradley Adams- "Los Angeles"}

Family Legends

I visited my grandparents last weekend. Grandma says, "Remember when you stole the onion? Remember what happened?"

An ONION?

Why would a 5 year old whose mother forbade sweets steal an onion? I say, "Grandma, it was a sucker. I remember."

"No," she says. "It was an onion."

I know this legend and I've referred to it often. I've even told my students about my act of "deviance" in sociology class. I was wearing a dress with pockets in the grocery store. I knew better than to ask my mom for candy, so I slipped one sucker into the pocket of my dress. Clearly, I don't have a very good innocent face, so Mom caught me with the contraband and made me go back inside to confess. Here's where things went a little out of control. The cashier yelled at me about THIEVES and PRISON and THE POLICE. Even my mom apologized to me afterwards, I think she would have rather reprimanded me herself.

But here's my quandary. Do I trust my own memory? Was it a sucker, was it an onion...or did I shoplift on TWO different occasions?

August 1969

I love, love, LOVE these two pictures of my parents in the late 1960s. They were married in August of 1969. I see all four of us girls in their faces...

Hair Color is just for fun!

Here's my myriad of hair colors from the past six months ....there are actually even MORE colors (the dryer lint/purple color and the bright yellow I did not record, probably because I was crying too hard). Sometimes I scare myself.