Winter in Southern California and The Guadalupe Valley, Baja

Don't be jealous.

Gray whale breach

My little sister Melissa and I

Old dear friends -- Brumi Winery in Baja

The view from my shower

The Wall (the thing that fucker in the White House wants built higher and wider)

How to remain sane

procured via the internets by using Google and keywords vintage, female brain

1. When I begin to wonder what would happen to Sophie's health insurance should the Repubs and Libertarians repeal the Affordable Care Act, stop (wondering).
2. Scroll through Facebook only twice in a day, except if someone private messages me
3. Unfriend anyone who uses sarcastic or unkind language about people who choose to delay or not vaccinate their children.
4. Unfriend anyone who checks LIKE on any of above status updates or contributes their own sarcastic or unkind language on above status updates.
5. Listen respectfully to those who roll out the usual tropes and cliches about vaccinations but who maintain civility and understanding without condescension
6. Delete Buzzfeed, Huffpost and other half-assed, biased online news sources that dumb down every single issue. 
7. Never read any of #6 publications again except if there's a story about Dean Smith or Javier Bardem.
8. Admit to myself that #3 and #4 are the only way to not feel nearly physically ill and hurt even though I understand it's not personal.
9. Realize that most of the people who I've unfriended are really not friends, anyway, and it's better for all of us
10. Wonder about that phrase the personal is political again, especially in the context of #3, #4 and #5 and stop (wondering).
11. Remember how much I fought with my sister in high school, how much I disliked her and how much I love her now
12. Meditate every day for twenty minutes
13. Nurture my brutal sense of humor by re-reading Lorrie Moore's There are no people like that here: canonical babbling in peed-onc 
14. Stick to work -- to writing, to reading, to caregiving
15. Take a walk every day
16. Eat good food and drink good coffee
17. Remember old lovers
18. Whisper thank you to the blue sky, the balmy breeze, the golden sun, the warmth on my bare arms

Reader, how do you remain sane?

Me and My Seesters

Happy National Sibling's Day, Jennifer and Melissa!

(gotta love the shoulder pads and the pearls, right?)

Happy Halloween, circa 1972

Writing and Gifts from Old Friends and Sisters

I started meeting once a week for a few hours with a group of writers. It's not a workshop group but, rather, a real writing group. We really write. At the beginning, we sit down and chit chat for a few minutes, catch each other up, briefly, on what's happening. Then one person tears up a few strips of paper and we each grab one or two. We write down phrases or words, anything that comes to mind and can be used as a prompt. Then someone picks up a piece of paper, opens it and reads it aloud. Then we write -- the first prompt is for five minutes, the second is for ten minutes, then it's fifteen and then back to five minutes. When the buzzer goes off, we stop typing or writing and read aloud what we've written. We don't comment, except to sigh or smile or laugh or draw our breaths in. Then we're on to the next. We follow in a specific order -- whoever opens the prompt and reads it aloud is the first to read aloud what she's written. Then we go counter-clockwise. It works. This is so good, you writers out there -- so good and so inspiring in the way that writers need to be inspired. You just start with something, anything, and then you write. I've always thought there's way too much discussion about writing in general -- about how difficult it is, about whether or not you're good enough, about the anxieties and insecurities of The Writer. Lately, I've noticed a whole lot of hullabaloo about writing for free on the internet, how resentful "writers" are when they're asked to write online and not get reimbursed. My opinion is that there haven't been too many writers in history that got paid enough money to support themselves and that if you're a writer, you'll just write, whenever and however you can. If you're getting paid and can support yourself, I envy you. If not, get a job, but don't stop writing.

Here are the prompts from a week or so ago:

1. My skeleton
2. Blood-shot eyes
3. A Sense of place
4. The Rain They Say is Coming

This week, I got a spark of a short story from the prompt It Goes Like This. Think a man, tattoos, a bald head, the goods, the threat of a cult, Jesus freaks and the slippery slope of desire -- that's what I wrote about for five minutes.

When I got home this afternoon from the usual driving around the city, I had a pile of mail, including two mysterious packages. One was for Sophie, and when I opened it up I saw that it was from one of my oldest and dearest friends with whom I backpacked through Europe in the Let's Go Europe! days. Do you remember those? This beautiful, brilliant woman sent that mermaid to Sophie, and I'm taking it as a token of luck. Sophie did really well today, too, but who's noticing? The other gift was from my funny sister Melissa. She sent me a Ryan Gosling coloring book. She knows me all too well. Henry and Oliver took one look at the gifts and rolled their eyes. Are you really going to color that? Henry asked. I told him that I imagine it will be enormously relaxing to sit and color in Ryan Gosling's lines. You'd think I was stoned, but I'm not. I'm CBD'd excited.

Happy Birthday, Sistah!

Me, Our Mother, My Little Sister, Melissa