Mass Transit is one of those special blog entries that I had always planned to use as the basis for a short story. Here I crossed paths with a stranger on a bus, and I’ve never stopped thinking about this man. Mass Transit (October 04, 2001) An articulate male voice spoke softly. It said, “That is one interesting outfit.” Sighing, I looked up to see the owner of the voice. I just knew that one of these guys was going to start talking to me. That’s w…
Every single one of us should be involved in politics, speaking up and speaking out against injustices. Every. One. All thinking people understand that we all have to stand up. If you say with your whole chest "Keep politics out of __________!" then you are not a thinking person. So sit the fuck down.
I was voted "Feminist" in the high school yearbook. I don't know why. I was gobsmacked when I saw the yearbook. I mean...I am...but what was it about me that the yearbook committee thought was particularly feminist?? I had never made a speech or written a manifesto or argued with anyone on the topic? I was not in the Debate Club nor did Model UN. So weird. Also, the yearbook committee was comprised of all these people who took pi…
Feeling kind of tired today, but I wanted to put something down for September 11. I'm shocked to find that on the day the planes hit the towers I put only a one word entry in the Diaryland blog: War. I was probably too stunned to write. That morning I was driving to work. The radio in my Geo Prism started to broadcast the story of a plane hitting the first tower. My first assumption was a small plane, and I think the newscaster thought that, …
I’m not paying close attention to the Lindsay Clancy trial and aftermath, but I've gleaned enough through osmosis to know that I am of two minds about it. On the one hand, I think “She could have brought the kids to a neighbor and then left town, or gone to an ER and told them she’d had thoughts about killing her kids, she’d have been admitted to psych at once.” Something, anything. On the other hand, I had a psychotic break 12 years ago . I …
So this job I found on LinkedIn. Not for me, I'm helping Joe find something Remote that's in his wheelhouse. This job description calls for "a proactive and highly skilled Digital Assets Management professional who is a master of social media and PR strategy." Some observations. Your Digital Asset Manager, Social Media Manager, and PR Strategist are three different people. Those roles require three totally different skill sets. …
My first foray into Zappa was in grade school. 7th grade, so 1983. A bunch of us girls were having a sleepover at Jennifer Dixon's house in Cheshire CT, playing records, when Jen put on "Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch." Stunning record, and the album art cracked me up. We went crazy for "Valley Girl," featuring Frank's 14-year old daughter Moon Unit. Moon did a lot to introduce her dad to prepubescent…
Many years ago I found Return of the Frog Queen by plucking it out of a $1 CD bin at Diskovery in Allston. When Yolanda rang me up (I got some used books that day too) I told her that I hadn't heard of the guy, I was just intrigued by this slim cardboard sleeve with the black & white photograph of a guy about my age. I don't know what compelled me to pick this one up. Turns out Jeremy Enigk was the frontman in Seattle-based Sunny Day …
I love this door. Look at it. Just look at it! Not only for it's beauty, but because we've never had a door we could open like this, because we've never lived on the first floor like this. There's that old adage about things happening for a reason. Well, the veracity of that is questionable, but in this case, it's so true. Joe and I looked at an apartment 8 months ago, fell in love with it, applied...and didn't get it. &quo…
You
know that old internet chestnut "Pics or it didn't happen?" This is why
I've kept a blog for 26 years. That's why I know that I had my favorite
burger on April 24 2018--The Cousin Oliver. Veggie patty on a wheat
bun, bitches. Alas, they don't make it anymore, which I found out on
Facebook from Robbie Rist of all people. IYKYK.
Guess what, guys? On August 16th I finally started an online store for my T-shirt designs. It was three years to the day of Joe's heart transplant. Custom Ink has been printing my shirt designs for years, but only for my personal use. Custom Ink is great. My rep suggested that I test it out with one design and make it a Fundraiser instead of a store. So I did! This is my "Bear With Me" shirt. I made this one ten years ago at the lowe…
On August 13th I put up a #ThrowbackThursday post on Facebook. It threw all the way back to March 22, 1946. That's the day Grandpa DiPoala was Honorably Discharged from the army. James DiPoala had been, in the parlance of his time, "shell shocked." That's a term that originated during World War I to describe PTSD, and my grandfather came back from WW2 suffering from anxiety, depression, tremors and the inability to speak. He di…
They
hate the hijab and they have no idea why. That's why I am always saying
"there are no smart racists." The average racist couldn't tell you who
wears the hijab, what it stands for, or what's the difference between a
hijab, a wimple, a veil, a tichel, a dastar, or a fucking Amish bonnet. They just see the hijab on a woman and fly into a rage. As a matter of fact, the quietly intelligent woman who spent an hour twice a…
So
I have this uncle. He’s like 80 or thereabouts, I don’t know exactly. I haven't talked to him in years. For one thing, there was some questionable stuff surrounding his interest in underage
girls (including family members), and for another thing there was something shady about his overseas finances that was never
explained. He is definitely, without a doubt, 100% a liar, and not a very convincing one at that. My Lord, the stupid lies w…
Oh
brother. On August 3rd Stephen Miller's wife actually said of Dr. Fauci "Every man who has a journal is narcissistic." Keeping a journal is narcissistic now? And is that only for men? What an incredibly dumb thing to say. Tell me you don’t know any writers without telling me
you don’t know any writers. These people do my head in, Jesus.🙄
So, you guys know I have my blog cross-posted on various platforms. Well, I also considered posting on Substack. Then, as I do, I read the Substack Privacy Policy . After which I rejected Substack with a quickness. The Substack Privacy Policy is essentially "there is no Privacy here." It's even worse than the Google Privacy Policy update they published on May 26 of this year --the update that sent me running back to Diaryland to writ…
You guys, I'm having a vision problem at the moment. I have to step away from blogging because I can't see the fucking screen. Doc says it will resolve on its own and that there's nothing to worry about ...
Whether you're an old school blogger or you've caught wind of the rumor (it's true) that personal blogging is making a comeback, you should know about Diaryland ( diaryland.com ). Diaryland is one of the OG online diary platforms, launched in 1999 by Canadian developer Andrew Smales. For those of us who started out on Diaryland way back when "blog" was years away from becoming a household word, we writers poured our hearts &#…
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