The truncated calf springs upward
as if summoned by the ceiling.
Mom said it’s like a teenage erection,
bounding from the hospital gown–
a body part under
no one’s control.
So grandma’s got a stump now.
And she can’t harness or subdue it
like the horse she once cantered,
her two legs gripping the girth,
her two legs holding her steady
high in the [...]
Category > My favorite people
An ode to her amputated leg
Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and how it relates to my own life
Makes me miss my people before they’re gone.
Makes we want to document more moments like this:
The bbf and I kick a blue rubber ball around the yard after his long day at work and my colossal afternoon nap. I collapse on the grass. “I’m exhausted from all this soccer,” I say. “I think I’m coming [...]
Going to my baby brother’s lacrosse game today
He is the most adorable jock ever. And he better score a lot of goals to compensate for my leaving the internet for 12 hours. You hear me, bro? I want flashy, violent goal scoring. Like a video game. None of this sissy stuff. And it’s raining, so there better be hot chocolate at the [...]
Another short and sweet post about arm wrestling
I give you the best multimedia feature about arm wrestling the Daily Progress has ever done.
My grandmother the Naval officer and two historic anti-cockroach documents from WWII
In January, 1943, my grandmother Bunny Murray enlisted in the WAVES. Born Jean “Bunny” Miller Brundred in 1920, my grandmother loved fishing, hunting, fashion, and the best of American values. When the United States joined World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Bunny’s friends started dying soon after, she knew she had [...]
New website idea
I think there should be a website devoted to online content that moms find funny. Then they can stop forwarding said content to their children.
A friend who chased foxes
I once had a friend who chased foxes on horseback. I met her at a makeup counter at the mall. I sat on her high stool and she pressed the thin skin around my eye sockets, rubbing shimmer across my lids. The most skittish strangers trusted her with the lining of their lashes. When you [...]
Conversation on a walk with my grandfather yesterday
Grandfather: I have always been impressed with my mother’s managerial skills. Not only did she parent ten children, but she also managed a full household staff.
Me: I know! When I read older English novels, I’m reminded of those extra responsibilities of the family matriarch. Like right now I’m reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. . .
Grandfather: [...]
It’s Noelle’s birthday today
I didn’t get her a present this year, because I’d have to send it to Barcelona and I am lazy. I also feel like I have a five-year grace period because of a priceless gift I gave her once. In 2003, when we were roommates in the capital city, I told her that I would [...]
Self-absorbed party wrap-up
I try to be charming at parties, and yet I always end up dry humping someone by the bar or threatening to steal a girl’s baby. I lose people’s jackets, I feed hyper kids too many cookies, and if certain friends haven’t arrived by a certain hour, I make angry, drunken phone calls demanding their [...]
