Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! From NPR The Writer’s Almanac: On this day in 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: 25. Christmas day. Lay pretty long in bed. And then rise, leaving my wife desirous to sleep, having sat up till 4 this morning seeing her maids make mince-pies. I go to church, where our [...]

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This year, or at least the last six months, I’ve been a lot more crafty (craftier?). I’ve always been someone who likes to make things–pipe-cleaners and yarn were staples of my childhood. I think I got it from my mom, she was always making something: latchhook rugs, afghans, puffy fabric picture frames, strawberry jam,  clothes [...]

Posted in crafts, food, my plants 2 Comments »

I’m so ready for my Winter Break that all I can think of is clichés. Last night were my last two classes. Now just a bit of grading and i’m home free. And, i’ve got so many things I need and want to blog about: My Christmas Wishlist My Winter Break Reads The Things I [...]

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I made this postcard this weekend as a gift for our upstairs neighbors. I mentioned them in the last post, but they are a husband and wife with an infant son and they made homemade signs that they put in their windows in support of the ban on Prop 8– one sign says,  Pro-Marriage:No on [...]

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Funny. The last two nights when I was driving home at 7pm The Writer’s Almanac on NPR played the same show–which was about Augusten Burroughs (author of Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf at the Table…duh). It felt kind of like that movie, Groundhog Day, in fact, I had to check my cell phone to [...]

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It’s Oscar Wilde‘s birthday today. He was born in Dublin in 1854. I only know this because I get daily emails from The Writer’s Almanac– and you can too–click here. Every day I get a poem in my email, plus trivia and tidbits about writers born on that day. Here’s a great quote from him. [...]

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I love vintage books. I’m starting to collect vintage pulp books– mostly those that have been made into movies, like these: The Bad Seed, Revolt (or Day of) The Triffids, and The Left Hand of God (that’s Humphrey Bogart on the cover–he was in the film version). I believe I got all of these from [...]

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What a great week. I’m loving the two classes i’m teaching: Advanced Composition and Creative Nonfiction (a workshop). In the comp class I focus on Media; we talk about politics, pop culture, movies/TV/music. This week we watched the documentary “The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in Hollywood” and discussed stereotypes in media. [...]

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I’m enjoying my moleskin diary. I’ve decided to title this diary ’39′ in honor of this being my 39th year. I want to see at the end of April (my birthday) what i’ve written in this year. Last Monday, the 25th, was the first day teaching my Creative Nonfiction class. It was a great first [...]

Posted in Movies, Uncategorized, books, collage, crafts, fiction, food, my writing, shopping, teaching 1 Comment »

I hadn’t cruised Ebay in a long time so recently while perusing stores for odd ephemera, movie star memorabilia, and other stuff I can clutter my life with, I came across this picture of Maximilian Schell. (of Judgement at Nuremberg –for which he won the Oscar–and The Black Hole). He was quite the hunky back [...]

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