When I was in grade school, we had a class where we’d write journal entries and our superintendent would have various students read aloud their entries to the rest of the school. The favorites were the ones written by the older kids that were obvious rip-offs of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, substituting the names of their classmates. We’d beg for the next installments to hear what happened. No one ever asked for me to read my writing. I wasn’t a very good writer and never had anything terribly interesting to write about. Also, I was a little kid.…
Operation barbacoa: two blisters and two bags of charcoal (to melt through the frost layer) and many hours later Berck is exultant about his hole. The leg of lamb is thawing in the laundry room and a stack of maguey leaves is waiting in the garage. Berck has fashioned wire handles for the pot from Mexico. We have test-fit the grate on the pot. We have firewood stock-piled next to the hole. We have a plywood cover and tarp ready for the hole. There are garbanzo beans soaking in water upstairs. Tomorrow morning, we have to get up super early…
I have a superpower. I only discovered it recently, though it turns out it had been there all along. And for the longest time I thought it was my greatest weakness. I was continually chastised for it. I fought to suppress it. I sought counseling and read books on the subject. My greatest weakness is anger. I’m angry all the time. Even when I am relaxed, joking around, having a good time… I’m still angry. I’m angry at carelessness and waste. I’m angry about inefficiency and injustice. I’m angry because of inattention and cruelty. A turning point in my journey…
The following is a Facebook comment. I’m putting it here to see if I still think the same way in a few years, and Facebook is a black hole where things go to die. None of this is saying anything much I haven’t said before, but I like to go back and see what I used to think. For context, the comment that spawned it was: I’m just amazed that Trump got elected by working/middle class folks on a campaign about catering to them and not the rich, and then passed one of the biggest tax bills for the rich…
Every year I plan to say something I’m grateful for each day in November, and every year I forget. So here’s a list of thirty things I’m grateful for posted on December 1. For my amazing husband who worked his butt off to get a degree and as a result was able to get a job that compensates him very well and where is very highly valued. That my amazing husband hasn’t quit or been fired. For our beautiful house. For my beautiful commute. I tell you what, I’d rather drive the 45 minutes I do now than the 10…