My sister Megan works at a nursing home. Yesterday, I noticed she has this badge with symbols on it, a key to decode the symbols residents have inside their closet doors and on their charts.
Posts under ‘Ties that bind...and gag’
Go Wiggle Racer
Please note that I’m wearing clothes from junior high in this video and that I normally try to brush my hair.
Special effects have not been used to exaggerate Annie’s cuteness or agility.
English bullblog
Today I set up a Tumblr for Annie called Annie Get Your Bone.
Why dads only wear tighty whities
Me: I think dads have to leave the maternity ward wearing them, or they don’t get to take the baby.
TBID: There’s a tax deduction on all the fabric saved from wearing them instead of boxers.
Deep fried antioxidants
My mom’s discovered acai berries and is ready to consume them so that they will officially change her life. As with all good things, she’s hoping to share them with my dad, the pickiest eatin’ man in all the land.
Something fishy in Modern Love
I really love “Just One Last Swirl Around the Bowl,” Dan Barry’s Modern Love essay about a dad caring for his daughter’s dying goldfish. It’s funny and heartbreaking and the kind of stuff I aspire to write. See for yourself:
The day Daddy left
The fact that my dad was going to leave me in NYC on my own hung over us like a cloud. We’d gone on multiple trips throughout the summer to look for apartments and teaching jobs for me, and I’d finally secured both. I had two suitcases of stuff and about a month before school started.
The night before he left, I stayed at the hotel with him, instead of in my new furnished room at 107th and Amsterdam. I remember we got ice cream at the nearby Ben & Jerry’s that last afternoon, and that I wore flip flops that thwacked against my feet. When it started to pour, they slid under me just like I felt the whole world was.
A night at the UniverSOUL Circus
I went to the circus every year until I was 13. It was my dad’s idea, and I eventually had to tell him I didn’t want to go anymore. It featured the same cheesy acts every year, with the most dangerous, bespandexed one occupying the center ring and dog tricks and juggling on either side.
I’m not sure how my dad survived all those nights of the same family entertainment spectacular. Maybe he was doing his taxes in his head? Dozing? Who knows?
I was invited to attend and blog about the UniverSOUL Circus last week. I hadn’t heard of the event, as it’s never toured anywhere I lived. Thinking about the “SOUL” part of the name, I started imagining clowns dressed as Otis Redding.
