Yellow Dog/Bleeding Heart

In progress...

Luck. I have never been a big believer in it. I think everything happens for a reason. I also think we make our own luck. Take, for example, a happily married couple I know who just celebrated their 25 th wedding anniversary. Many people told them they were very "lucky to have found each other" and subsequently such happiness. The wife and I were talking about how this was not a compliment. "We worked very hard to get through some bad times. We almost split up once, but in the end we chose to work it out. It was not always easy, but it has always been worth it," she said. She went on to explain that they both view their relationship as something they maintain. They make it a point to work through the little things. Their successful marriage was bourne of choice, commitment and hard work. Luck had nothing to do with it. It is like when people tell me how lucky I am to work for such a wonderful employer. I did not just stumble into this job. I have worked a lot of c...

I love to travel - especially road trips I wish I was multi-lingual I read an average of 2 books a week. (Usually it's a book a day.) I am a poet I always planned on going to law school, but things worked out differently I am extremely loyal I recycle I am a Yellow Dog Democrat (Duh.) I think bald heads are sexy I ride English I choose not to hate I am fascinated by birth I am inspired by kindness  I've only been in love twice in my life I am Irish Indian I used to have tradition of going to NYC for New Year's Eve I taught preschool for three years I have seen (up close) a man get stabbed in the heart I admire intelligence I think humour is an important asset Spelling errors jump out at me from the page I never end a sentence with a preposition I can still recite all the helping verbs I had to memorize in fourth grade I never "got" math If I had to pick one food for the rest of my life it would be cheese I collect tin robots I've been mostly vegetarian since I...

These days Furry walks into a room and announces, "Hi!" for all to hear. His eyes are wide and his smile is big, so of course we can't help but acknowledge his greeting with a resounding, "Hi!" back to him. Therein lies the problem. See, he doesn't get that he can just let it go at that point. He answers your "Hi" with yet another, " Hiiiiiiiiiiiii ," though this time in a more breathy and excited voice. The cycle repeats until you distract him with the cat or a cookie. But imagine what a big word those two letters must be to him. It's a word filled with expectation. It can mean, "Hi! I'm here now. Adore me!" Or, it can mean "Hi! What do you wanna do now?" How about, "Hi! Wow I can't believea minute ago you weren't here and now you are!" And even, "Hi! Right now you are my most favourite person in the world!" The word gets everyone's attention. It puts smiles on people's fa...

1. Finish painting the downstairs hall. Finally. 2. Take the donation clothes to Catholic Charities. 3. Drop off the dry cleaning. 4. Buy new tires for the car and get the oil changed. 5. Find the damned money to buy new tires for the car. 6. Work with Joey on the book proposal. 7. Read 2 issues of Bitch , 3 issues of Bust and the Utne - or at least pick them up off the bedroom floor. 8. Balance the checkbook for real and get rid of that fake negative balance I keep to trick myself into not spending money. 9. Put up the crown moulding in the kitchen 10. Return calls to Beth, Holly, Muller and, of course, Dad 11. Edit the stack of poems on my desk. 12. Replant the the planter on the landing. 13. Figure out how to stop the cats from peeing in the planter on the landing. 14. Take cats for rabies shots 15./16. Get new glasses/Stop holding things at arms length and squinting to read. 17. Buy books for school - both mine and Little Dog's 18. Take the cans for recycling 19. Haircut? 20....

I love to travel, and yet have not been on a real vacation in over a decade. Back in my twenties, which were, to my life, what the 90's were to the dot com-ers . Money flowed, I bought into my own PR and then it all crashed. But I digress. Okay, in my twenties I was the queen of road trips. I would finish a Saturday night shift at the piano bar at 3 am, and being hyped up on caffeine and with pockets full of cash I would spontaneously decide to drive to Denver to visit a friend. Soooo ...I would cover my next couple of shifts, grab my duffel, hop in the car and make the drive. 12 hours straight through...ON NO SLEEP. I arrive at my friend's doorstep just as she was coming home from work. Surprise! I would drive four hours to Dallas just to eat dinner. I would drive six hours to see a band. Gas was cheap and, for the most part, my time was free. So, with that in mind I decided Little Dog should experience the magic of a road trip. It was summer and I had just fi...

Furry’s parents are getting divorced. Yes, midway through a relatively calm week, right after dinner and before deciding which tivo -ed program to watch, his dad very matter-of- factly mentioned that he “ didn ’t really love” his mom anymore. He also mentioned (and I do mean mention , as these statements were made like mere asides as he watched tv ) that he would be moving out the following Sunday. Yeah, Furry’s mom had all the same questions you might be asking. Things like, “We were having problems? Wha ?!” and “Why didn ’t you ever tell me you were unhappy?” As reality sunk in the questions quickly became louder and more aggressive. “What the hell are you thinking?!” and, “Is this a fucking joke?!” It does not really matter what else was said during the following period of shrieking and tears. The bottom line was that the marriage had ended without any warning. Not with a bang, but with a very annoying heavily accented British whine. See, he claimed he did no t “feel passionate” ...