During my junior high and high school years, my mother was a theater professor. Every spring, the department did a Shakespearean comedy. One year, it was Mom's turn for the spring Shakespeare, and during the planning meeting someone suggested that the play that year be The Taming of the Shrew.

"Great!" said Mom. "I've been wanting to do Shrew for ( Read more... )

When Fat Tire beer is $8.99 for a six-pack and $13.99 for a twelve-pack, Yankee math says Buy more beer!

(Hush, ancestors - I'm being frugal. You should approve.)

Going to be taking next week off from work (thanks to the whole California-going-broke, Oakland-going-broke, unpaid-furloughs-for-state-workers-and-the-like thing), and I am so looking forward to it. The prospect of ten days in a row of not having the alarm go off at 5:00 am, not having to drag myself out of bed, not having to put on makeup and ( Read more... )

You know all those jokes about horrible, critical, interfering, you'll-never-be-good-enough-for-my-precious-son-and-don't-think-I'll-ever-let-you-forget-it mothers-in-law?

Completely alien to my experience.

spiritualmonkey's mom, WarmheartedMonkey, has never been anything other than loving, caring, welcoming, and generous to the weirdo Californian her (weirdo) ( Read more... )

It wasn't until I read this thread on Ask Metafilter just now that I remembered that today would have been my mom's 68th birthday.

...I'm beginning to think that forgetting is not such a great thing if it means I keep getting sandbagged like this.

Maybe I should mark February 19 and September 5 on the calendar.

Time to go listen to music and cry ( Read more... )

And searching YouTube for some of her favorite musicians. At least, the ones that stuck in my memory. *wry smile*

For your enjoyment:

Blossom Dearie - ( Read more... )

Until 10 minutes ago, I had forgotten what day it was.

Fourteen years ago today, my mother died.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Mutant talent: can spot typos from 20 paces.

It makes the monkey crazy. I'll walk through the living room without slowing, and as I pass by I'll say "you've got an extra space in the first line of that third paragraph. And down at the bottom you spelled his name Barrack, not Barack - he's not a military dorm ( Read more... )

Like many older cats, Nemo has a hyperthyroid condition, and we've been working with the veterinarian for some months now to get the medication dose worked out. Pirate took him in for a check on Thursday to see how he's doing. A voicemail from the vet came in yesterday while the soporificat had me zonked, so I didn't get around to listening to it ( Read more... )

I'm currently immobilized by a sciatica attack (an aftereffect of spending two weeks on crutches following my foot injury) and have spent the past week on the sofa. Since I got home from work on Friday the 7th, the only times I've left the apartment (or stood up for longer than five minutes, really) has been for acupuncture or other healthcare ( Read more... )