Tuesday, November 26, 2013

To Spite My Face

You can never not see your nose. See? It's right there. You see it now, don't you? And once you notice that it's hard not to see it all the time. Just there like that. Being your nose.

This is where shit gets weird.

Because that's kinda' sorta' why I haven't been blogging. I've been too busy noticing my nose. Except, of course, substitute "my nose" with "thinking about my mom" and there you have it. Here's the thing: when someone you love dies, the world lets you grieve for a nebulous amount of acceptable time and then at a certain point everyone expects you to move on. Gently, sure, not callously, but quite frankly...there is oil to be changed and people to be gossiped about, somebody has to send the Netflixii back, after all (not a typo but the plural of 3 Netflix discs, i.e. Game of Thrones Seasons 1 and 2, i.e. medieval fantasy porn, i.e. King Joffrey sux dragon balls). So yes, I've been doing all this, acting like a perfectly normal person amid a perfectly normal world all the while obsessed with my nose. My nose being the fact that my mom is gone. I don't talk about it all the time during my day, at work, to the grocery store cashier, but it's there, my nose, and I see it. I am thinking the whole goddamn time my mom is gone my mom is gone my mom is gone. Because once you realize you can never not see your nose it is there. Just like that. Out of the corner of your eye, in the periphery. A part of you. And you walk around seeing your nose and even noticing other people's noses and you wonder why nobody is talking about any of it, all cap-locked and shit. CAN YOU NOT SEE MY NOSE? ALL OF US, WITH THESE UGLY LITTLE APPENDAGES ON THE FRONT OF OUR FACE LIKE THAT? PEOPLE YOU LOVE DIE! MY MOM IS DEAD. WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Hardly the stuff of a blog people want to read, non?

The thing is, this blog has always been where I've gone to write about whatever the hell I want to write about but it's been hard lately to navel-gaze when my nose is in the way. So here's the deal: I'm just going to keep writing. Whatever that means. Maybe it will stink (too much? The nose analogy?). But I don't want to cut off my blog to spite my...yeah, totally too much with this nose thing. But it makes sense to me, so.

On another note, not entirely unrelated:
Lately Ozzy has been infatuated with grocery bags, preferred toy of cats and kids. I am thinking about stuffing his stocking with Trader Joe's bags. I have also stumbled upon this fabulous little life tip: if you're ever afraid of someone, nervous around someone or just really angry at someone, picture that person wearing a paper bag on their head and it magically dissolves the edge of the feeling. Try it. I double dog dare you.

Shit. There's my nose again, lit up by the glow of the computer screen.
xo,
S

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Fall Is Here, Hear the Yell, Back to School, Ring the Bell...

I realize that in showing these photos I am one thin blog post away from those stupid stick figure family decals that people put on the back window of their car, but I can't help myself. My kids...THEY ARE SO SQUISHY!!!
School photos have come a long way since the 80's, though those pigtails don't fool me...she is growing up too fast, isn't she?
Giving his best Blue Steel. If this photo were scratch-n-sniff it would totally smell like clean puppies.
See also: Despite the mid-70's forecast today I wore my knit beanie and scarf to work. I am feeling very fall delicate, tomato soup and movie nights in which I cry at the part in Toy Story 3 when they go down the trash compactor...the suspense is just too much sometimes, you know? And so it is that on days like this I sing to myself in my head a cozy little ditty--And we don't notice any time pass / We don't notice anything / We sit side by side in every class / Teacher thinks that I sound funny / But she likes it when you sing...

Pumpkin spice and everything nice,
S