Shelter in Place: Day 14

Hello Friends and Family, It has now been two weeks since shelter in place was instituted. I have left the apartment twice: once to the grocery store and once to mail a letter. Otherwise, I go on my little daily walks and stay indoors talking to Mr. Scout more and more. Isn't that right, Mr. …

Shelter in Place: Day 13

Woof. This documenting the days spent largely indoors is not easy. If only I were creative. Yesterday I spent 7 straight hours on video calls: first a virtual birthday party, then family catch-up, then work, then straight into my writing group. I can barely stand to look at the screen to write this. On the …

Shelter in Place: Day 5

For some reason, I keep thinking that I'll go to bed and when I wake up the whole catastrophe will have been a dream. I have very vivid and in-depth dreams, so it wouldn't be that out of the ordinary. One of my dreams was so compelling that I titled it in my sleep. But …

Shelter in Place: Day 4

Saturday, March 21st, 2020 The sky is pale blue behind a veil of grey clouds. No wind at the moment. Yesterday, I left the house to buy groceries and to refill my prescription. I was uneasy. I have felt uneasy about buying groceries before. Blackbirds, catcalls, lack of funds, interacting with humans - I've faced …

2019 A Year in Review

It's January 2020. Outside, the California sun is moving through a pale blue sky; it illuminates the houses and palm trees and pavement and the stretch of sidewalk where once I dreamt I saw a ghost. That's perhaps the best description for 2019 that I can come up with: the dream of a ghost. In …

In Defense of Optimism

I entered into a conversation recently that began around Kafka and ended somewhere to the left of me defending the concept of hope in the face of what was purportedly a deterministic universe. I don't know that I believe the universe has been determined, and even if it were, I don't necessarily think that excludes …

Why I Started Writing

Maybe I've already written about this. It's been five years since I started this blog. That's incredible when you think about it. This little sucker would be about to start kindergarten if it were a human. As it is, my guess is that it is slowly gaining sentience and someday soon will start its own …

More Updating

Hello All! Just wanted to write a quick post to share some of the cool things that have been happening. This past Sunday, I participated in a one-day workshop hosted by ZYZZYVA. It was exhausting (think six hours straight of literary criticism both given and received), but definitely rewarding. And I was honored just to …

2018: A Year in Review

It's 5:18AM, Sunday the 23rd of December, 2018, and I'm worrying about dog collars. Well, not dog collars in general, but one dog collar in specific. It's someone's lucky dog collar, in fact, and I'm worrying about it. This to say that 2018 has been filled with the unexpected. Perhaps not unexpected in a vast …

Life Update: August 2018 Edition

Hey kids and kittens! It's been half a minute since I wrote something on here, so let's dust it off and see what we've got. What a year, friends, and it isn't even over yet! In the last few months since returning from Europe, I moved apartments, started a new job, and then another new …