I blame an outbreak of herpes zoster on my poor math skills ( Read more... )

Last night, my brother-in-law and I, much to the relief of our spouses, went to see Wilco together.  Matthew is as big of a Wilco fan as I am, and being from Chicago, he's had more opportunity to see them. Graham--who has been dragged to many a Wilco show with me by default--had to work, and Claudia has passing familiarity with Wilco, but said it'd ( Read more... )

I've been listening to the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Volume One this morning.  It really is awesome ( Read more... )

I'm going to Mexico on Friday for a wedding.  My friends wanted to get married on a beach, and they found a cute All Inclusive on Isla Mujeres. There will be 45 of us there, and I'm sharing a room with two of my friends and another girl I haven't met yet. Graham isn't coming because he has schoolwork, and the end of the semester looms. I also have ( Read more... )

So I was thinking about Halloween and my costume this year, and I thought that I'd walk down memory lane.

This will be my tenth year going to my friend Candyman's Halloween party. It's a pretty legendary party, and people clamor for invitations. I was at his house last night, helping to set up. I'll go over again tomorrow to throw on some of the ( Read more... )

My great-aunt Ana wanted to get her corneas replaced so she could see my wedding.

I back up. A little over a year ago, Ana was in the hospital, having been the second person in the world to undergo an experimental heart valve replacement procedure. She'd been having problems breathing due to congestive heart failure, and at 95 years old, she ( Read more... )

A couple of days ago, I encountered this youtube video in a Houston Press blog post:

Click to view

It was taken in 1979, right after the Houston Oilers lost the AFC Championship title to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 1978 season. 80,000 people went to the Astrodome to welcome the team home. I was really, really moved by the video, and it seemed to me that I ( Read more... )

At some point in high school, I went to the Westheimer Arts Festival and found a tiny dragon pendant on a delicate silver chain. I LOVED that thing. I wore it every day I could, almost never taking it off. It was silver, and very simple, and if it hadn't been the late 80s, I would swear it was a laser cut piece of metal. It looked as if it were ( Read more... )

So my 20th high school reunion was this weekend ( Read more... )

I don't think I actually listened to it until December, 1991. It came out in August, but right then I was busy moving from Houston to California to go to college. That first semester was a blur. I was inundated with new experiences, new ideas, living far away from my family. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my ( Read more... )