backwards and in high heels.

Edvard Munchian

Uh…that was awkward

Ruby had already buckled herself into her car seat when she realized she’d forgotten the drawings for her teacher. I ignored the urge to say, too bad, kid. We’re late. Chalk it up to a lesson learned about having your shit together. (God, how I love my fantasy life.) Instead I channeled June Cleaver, set [...]

She is sixteen going on seventeen

I woke Ruby this morning, got her dressed and then told her that I needed to rinse her hair in the sink so that I could poof it out a bit. Revitalize it. She started to cry a really slow, dramatic cry and continued until we had her head turned upside down under the faucet. [...]

La famille

Le pere

et la mere

et la fille.

C’est une artiste.

It just sounds so much better in french…as if it isn’t magnificent enough already.

New ‘do

I began these Zulu knots (or Bantu knots or “Chinese boys”) last night, but started too late and had to finish tonight. Though time consuming, it’s a very easy style to do.

The hardest part is, well, the part. Or, rather, the many parts. And more than that, the combing of the sections. Ruby isn’t so [...]

What are you doing this weekend? How about next?

If you live locally and are dying to find out more about sin that takes place in the corners of an ordinary day, please come check out this art show. It just so happens that six of my photographs were selected for display. I know: It’s shocking that any of my work could be considered [...]

Over lovin’: Trying to mother from the middle ground

“You know I love you, right?” I adjusted the bow on Ruby’s sleeping cap as I tucked her into bed.
“Unh-huh,” she said.  Her eyes were closed and the sound of her acknowledgment was stifled by the presence of her thumb in her mouth. The sound was a pasty gurgle, as if she had pudding in [...]

I told him once that I don’t blog about my friends

Tomorrow morning, while I sleep, my friend Rich is going to kiss his wife goodbye. I imagine he will linger a little longer than usual at the bedside of his (hopefully) sleeping toddler son and the crib of his six month old daughter. Then he will catch a flight to North Carolina where he will [...]

Outrage

Today I’m recommending you read this open letter to AIG. It was cathartic reading it, so it must have been cathartic writing it. Melanie put a breathtaking human face to the story and now, I’m going to add another one:

I like her ending, only I wouldn’t have been so polite as to use asterisks. I’m [...]

Starving the (wrong) beast: San Diego Unified throws the baby out with the bath water

Madison High School student Charles Spencer plays a tuba held together by duct tape. His school is too broke to fix the instrument, and with pending budget cuts, the prospect of Spencer—who was featured in a recent story by the online news website Voice of San Diego—having a music class during which to play his [...]

3 is the new 13

Ruby is equal parts sugar and spice, piss and vinegar these days. She’s certainly got a mind of her own, which is what we all want for our children…eventually! But not now! Right now, while she’s my captive audience and is free of peer pressure and bad influence and the ability to sell her virginity [...]

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