Teresa's Blog – December 2009 Archive (23)

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Text Wars

"What r u doing?"

"Just leave me alone."

"R u still mad?"

"Stupid question - R u still a jerk?"

"I love you."

"Ignore it, it'll go away."

Added by Teresa on December 31, 2009 at 4:30pm — 3 Comments

Where Santa Is Buried

When I was a child, I needed a map and a better understanding of television to learn that Sesame Street wasn't an actual street in downtown Ft. Worth, TX.



I had to fall out of a few tall pecan trees in my back yard before I gave up on the idea that I could fly and it was much easier to believe that Santa was only the "spirit" of Christmas, which went down just as easily as the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny being childhood props - decorations both to enhance a child's joy in life… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 30, 2009 at 5:00pm — 5 Comments

Love/Hate To See Him Go

How can anyone hate an 80 year-old? But I do.



He says that all a woman has is a face and a figure, that she only has the power to seduce a man and not much else; it's no wonder his wife left him almost twenty years ago.



He watches out the window for his son to come home from work, his son who invites this sexist beast to come stay with us without asking me, me who has to feed him, entertain him, wipe up the urine he spills around the toilet; dodging his arsenal of… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 29, 2009 at 10:43pm — 8 Comments

Adam's Daydream

Adam stood on the meadow alone, taking in a panoramic view of paradise, its bounty intuitively reaching for the sun and sky. There were mountains rising up in massive swells around him; green valleys, colorful eclectic gardens, and vast clean bodies of water were spread out across his home and everything on the earth was made of the earth, perfect.



Adam had a beautiful wife and children, the steady work of living, the comforts of good food and friends - all the exquisite pleasures of… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 28, 2009 at 10:18am — 4 Comments

House Guests

Margaret closed the front door, locked it, then peered out the window at the old man as he shuffled to the next house to inquire about his lost cat; she worried over him being out at night in a snow that had been falling for hours.



She began to turn out the lights in every room, always in the same order, and as she blew out a Christmas candle on what was once her grandmother's upright piano, she said good bye to the several framed pictures there - Mark, Todd, her parents and… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 24, 2009 at 12:43pm — 4 Comments

Dance Of Fate

Her mouth tasted like metal, or cigarette smoke, she wasn't sure which.



The shimmering wet street reflected the golden orb of a single street lamp, a strand of traffic lights flashing red, and the shiny tires & rims of a silver Lincoln Towncar parked opposite where she lay.



The scene was scewed, her orientation off, as Megan was lying on her stomach, her throbbing head scraping against loose bits of gravel as it turned to the side. She wiggled her right foot for… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 23, 2009 at 10:41am — 7 Comments

Calendar In Need Of Repair

I think the calendar fell off the wall, though I don't see it on the floor; it must have melted when it hit the floor because there are all these skinny, black, mangled numbers, like twisted wire hangers, knotted in a huge pile surrounded by a reddish liquid; it's not juice, tomato sauce or blood so it must be time.



I usually keep my calendars in the pantry, or I did (it's no longer safe in there), because I used a push-pin to hang it on the wall and didn't want to put… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 21, 2009 at 1:16pm — 5 Comments

A Hero's Journey

He was sick though it was hard to tell with his superhero six-pack, sinewy arms, Cary Grant face, and this man put in more hours at MacGregor Medical than any of the other doctors I knew; he would work for the next five years with fewer sick days taken than those of us with sparkling health.



This was 1992 and AIDS was a different animal, one that ravaged many of my friends and coworkers in Houston, Texas. John's disease seemed to progress at the same rate my love for him grew, which… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 20, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

6S Worlds

I strolled along the symbols, words and photos, touching everything with the slow reverence of a blind man. Sometimes there was music, Dean Martin begging to be adored, and his voice made the photos bleed and cry.



I watched the slideshows, felt them pouring from my eyes down into my center, the infinite worlds of others fading in and out; I tried to make them mine, to love and honor every image, every detail - even the ones that wouldn't seem to matter, like the farthest, vaguest tip… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 17, 2009 at 9:05pm — 4 Comments

Rebirth

He was angry when I took my love away, so he went for the children I'd given birth to over the course of a quarter century, the nuanced layers of mind and thought, a history of one.



They were born during long nights waiting up for a lover, a husband or teenager; they grew from worry over too-little money, losing my hair, losing a friend, or just while noting the color, shape and movement of your average miracle - a daily occurance.



Some came to be in the throes of crazy… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 17, 2009 at 2:35pm — 4 Comments

PMS

This morning I stood too long in the cold gray rain while my dog, Chester, refused to pee.



Then I drove to IHop to have breakfast with my husband and two young children; he took his own car for some reason, something about having to go to Fryes for a computer thingy after eating, and he better be sneaking off to buy me an awesome frickin' Christmas present, I secretly thought, tallying up his man-sins for 2009.



Once at the restaurant (whose bathrooms NEVER seem to… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 17, 2009 at 1:11pm — 5 Comments

Busted

I'm one of the reasons there are those pesky theft sensors on new clothing.



The day after I turned eighteen, I layered new merchandise beneath what I'd worn into a now-defunct store called Joskes; I was getting very skinny, had no money, and needed clothes.



Elaine Brull briskly followed me out of the Joskes and asked with a firm hand on my right shoulder, "Excuse me, do we have a problem with a pair of pants?!"



After almost wetting myself, I was escorted back… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 16, 2009 at 9:33pm — 2 Comments

David Sedaris Has Stalker Arrested

Dear David,



I'm in love with you and I want to have your baby. I know you're gay, and that contextually our parts don't match, but I'm not opposed to in vitro or surrogacy.



David, I've read ALL of your books, your New Yorker articles, listened to you read to huge crowds when I could afford plane fare or hitch-hike; I've pored over every detail on every website that has information about you and your talented, funny family, and then of course, Hugh (whom I don't believe is… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 15, 2009 at 10:32am — 3 Comments

Thai Americana

I ordered Thai cashew chicken with iced tea, then read my table cloth while I waited for the food to arrive, a pattern of old American ads - hair creams, one-horse farm wagons, and quality 8-day alarm clocks for sale.



I read that a one-horse farm wagon, standard size, gear only, was $41.75; standard size, complete with box and seat was $60.25. For $7 more one could add extra heavy gear, and the "spokes are made of hickory and axles made of steel; all other parts are made of red… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 14, 2009 at 8:29pm — 1 Comment

Kroger's Piano Man/Woman

The Kroger in Sugar Land, Texas has recently adopted a new way to attract (or repel) customers - they hire "musicians" to entertain at the front entrance of the grocery store.



I can't reconcile the canned goods, fresh vegetables, the butcher and fluorescent lighting with what reminds me of your typical lounge lizard crooning as if to a dark room of semi-conscious couples, their faces barely visible in a gray haze of smoke.



The entertainment is sometimes male, sometimes… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 14, 2009 at 6:22pm — 2 Comments

Monastery

The sheets were a tangle at the foot of the bed, crimson knots of six hundred thread count. I stared at the ceiling fan above, moaning somewhat as it slowly turned, the sound repeating over and over like the chanting of monks. I imagined living with them in a monastery full of arched windows through which stacked beams of sunlight flooded long narrow passageways; we would eat together, pray together, make cheese together.



Then I found myself wondering if there was a God.



A…

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Added by Teresa on December 12, 2009 at 3:00pm — 1 Comment

The Sandwich

She meekly asked my sister if she could have a sandwich; I thought this was odd, wondered why she hadn't made her own sandwich at home, something any seven year-old would have wondered.



A few moments later my sister returned with a sandwich she'd prepared in her mother-in-law's kitchen, and I suddenly realized how strange the inlaw setting was: the staccato Spanish whispered among the ten or so people in the room, my egocentric sister making a sandwich for anyone, the fact of…

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Added by Teresa on December 12, 2009 at 11:30am — 1 Comment

The Green Fairy

One Halloween she painted her face celedon green, put on a long black gown, a tall pointy hat, and happily scared the hell out of little kids all night.



Her favorite time of year was ANY holiday, and DeeDee decorated her home during each with what I referred to as "The Griswald Effect", overdone, but her cluttered expression of cheer always brought up my own cheer factor by about a thousand notches.



Our friendship began in 1980 while we sat on the gym floor during PE,…

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Added by Teresa on December 10, 2009 at 5:00pm — 1 Comment

Sisterhood

My earliest memory was of wanting to emulate her, my sister who was almost a decade older. She was pretty with her long blond-streaked hair, and I interpretted her fighting spirit as very 60's cool which is why I followed my shining icon everywhere she went.



Over the years we've plowed through a few marriages each, birthed four kids apiece, buried our mother and brother, and watched one another grow into competent women. She's still a fighter, and her list of those she no longer… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 10, 2009 at 2:46pm — 1 Comment

I Was Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

She was the principal at Joy Baptist Christian School, the wife of its founding minister, and had a menacing demeanor perhaps born of living in an overpopulated orphanage as a child. Her name was Mrs. Wolfenbarger, and I was deeply terrified of this tall imposing woman who was a plucky Gloria Steinem with big dollop of Betty Davis' scary character in the movie, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? .



She was on a witch hunt one morning as she interrupted classroom after classroom,… Continue

Added by Teresa on December 10, 2009 at 9:15am — 3 Comments

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