TL;DR: Dr Rivet remembers that the rich ladies can't see the dirty-faced tree climber she is on the inside.

I had a bit of a personal revelation this morning. My mother and I lived with an iron-willed and well-heeled great aunt (my father’s aunt) for a bit when I was a 12 year old tomboy struggling with the abrupt onset of puberty. This was the ( Read more... )

As of today, with much trial, tribulation and misstep, my mother has moved to a new senior housing establishment in Carmichael, California. It is not the one she wanted to be in, but it is a step forward and most importantly, it is out of LA. I heaved a large sigh of relief

I went away to Blazing Swan (Western Australia's regional Burn) for the easter long weekend. I returned to phone coverage to discover that my partner's father had a third stroke on Good Friday. The news as of yesterday was that it was hemorrhagic but not as big as the second one. It mostly affected his ability to talk and swallow. He was just ( Read more... )

My mum has been staying with me for the past 17 days. The timing was such that it happened when work was crazy with grant applications and Seed was crazy with post-even stuff, but there wasn’t a better time. She’s done lots of stuff on her own, reconnecting with the earlier independent self, which is great and makes me happy. We’ve done city ( Read more... )

I was going to tell you of the hilarity of my OK Cupid mail, but instead I'm digesting a bomb that I found my email: my mother's husband of 20 years (who never initiates anything) asked her to move out. I’m not really sure what to do with that one. It's a biggie ( Read more... )

I am traveling through different snippets of my life. This trip, the way back machine has placed me in the apartment I lived in with Allyn from 1993-97. I caught up with the department secretary from my undergraduate days (a friend in her own right, but someone I've not seen since her husband's funeral in 2003), and my former teacher, ( Read more... )

I realised the other day that most of what I know about the adult I wanted to be when I was younger (and now am) came from observations of Joe and Kathryn, or Kathleen (Kester's mother and their good friend). I opened the fridge, and everything was carefully containerised and organised, and is reflexively returned to exactly where it came from [our ( Read more... )

The only family member at home today is Blaine, who's now 21(?) I was his nanny when he came home from the hospital in 1992, so I've known him from the word go. I now fit easily under his chin, and like Tatjna's son he's got a booming baritone that seems resonate from all the way in his toes, but what could be threatening (I struggle to use that ( Read more... )

I am the youngest of 3 girls raised by a frequently-single mother (it defies logic that my mother could married 4 times while I lived at home and my memory is still of her as mostly single during my formative years, but there it is). I was the most boyish of the lot, skinning knees, falling out of trees, rejecting dresses and bringing home frogs ( Read more... )

My calendar told me that tomorrow was nephew's birthday. I haven't seen that one since early childhood, so I decided to give google a go. I found his mugshot, he's apparently doing time on a weapons charge. He's 22 tomorrow, born within a month of the nephew who died last year. Both of my sisters were heavily pregnant at my high school graduation ( Read more... )