"Why don't you ever play games with me?" El asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor ( Read more... )

Saturday evening we went to see a performance of Twelfth Night at the University of New Mexico. It was a poignant performance because it marked the retirement of two of the theatre faculty who'd been at the University over 50 years. I think Rachel and I were among maybe half a dozen of the audience who were not alumni. The scene design was gorgeous ( Read more... )

I was more than a little puzzled, upon entering the room, to find each of our three cats sitting in different corners, on chairs, facing the wall. Just sitting there, facing the wall. El was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the center of the room, and she was soaking wet. She looked up as I came in, and by the look on her face I could tell she ( Read more... )

We just saw Serenity. You know what really confuses me? When things make sense ( Read more... )

The apartment is sweltering. I have a crawling suspicion that El has been experimenting with the air-conditioning unit. For some reason I'm finding the patterns on the brown wallpaper extremely irritating. I wipe the sweat from my brow with my shirt cuff and go looking for her. I find her in the kitchen, trying to dig something out of the toaster ( Read more... )

Lately I've been thinking a lot, focusing a lot on this one idea. All my life, as far back as I can remember, I've always felt like I was supposed to have a sister. I have no real explanation for that. I used to think it was just a manifestation of longing for female company, since I was alienated from my mother at a pretty early age. But since ( Read more... )

As I walk in the room, my sister is sitting on the couch. The television is on with the sound off. It seems to be tuned to a Spanish soap-opera, but she's not watching it. The radio in her room down the hall is turned up loud enough to be heard in here, though there's another here on the bookshelf. But she's not listening to the radio, either. She' ( Read more... )