Category: Five in Five
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Sixteen in Some: Tuesday, February 6
When Byron goes to bed each night, I shift into “all the world falls away” mode. The house sleeps, yet my party continues. Some nights this means I work on a jigsaw; other night it means I catch up on celebrity gossip; and sometimes this means I watch a show that I know Byron wouldn’t…
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Five in Five: Monday, February 5
It’s the darkness that distinguishes it. Playing outside during daylight was so commonplace as to blur, in the faint murmurs of memory, into nothingness. Being out of the house under radiant sun just meant another Saturday, another round of mud patties slapped together while perched on the curb, leaning over the gutter. If it was…
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Five in Five: Sunday, February 4
It’s that time again: students in my advanced composition class are choosing topics for their research papers. While there is a whole sheet of instructions that I give to them, there are a few bulleted “big” points that I want to really drive home for them as they rev up and get going with their…
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One in Five: Saturday, February 3
I can’t spot him. Where is he? Byron already pointed him out, his curly blonde hair below the Exit sign, and we’re not that far away, so why can’t I find my kid? Ah, there! Paco’s head pops up. I can just make out his profile, his head small from this distance, his body invisible…
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Five in Five: Friday, February 2
And I’d been sleeping so deeply, too. But then came the moment when my bladder was so full my brain started to surface, and my body’s first impulse, a sort of readying itself to stand, was to roll over. Holy mother of lightning in the fascia. Pain radiated from seven different places in my right…
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Eight in a Million: Thursday, February 1
Representation matters. Messaging matters. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. These ads, half of them drawn from my mom’s formative years of the 1950s, the other half drawn from my formative years of the 1980s, tell a story about the values and expectations that shaped us. If we are willing to accept that…
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Five in Five: Wednesday, January 31
1. Needing to choose a topic for a research paper in English class, Paco asks for ideas. It’s not so much that he will accept any of our ideas but more that he needs to go through the process of hearing and discarding them so that he can feel increasingly certain the topic he already…
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Five in Five: Tuesday, January 30
Watching a Nova documentary about the ruins of Petra in Jordan reminded me that my idea of heaven, if I get to write that script, is this: for all of eternity, I will be reclining a third of the way back in a movie theater, a naturally refilling Large popcorn on my lap, watching reels…
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Five in Five: Monday, January 29
1. For the past five years (I think?), I’ve been on the Board of Directors for our local public television station. What I’ve proven really good at so far is people-watching during the meetings. About six months ago, the station hired a new general manager, and she’s great — bringing energy and vision to an…
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Five in Five: Sunday, January 28
Last night we turned on PBS, and there on Austin City Limits was Run the Jewels, mics in hand. Turning to Byron, I laughed, “Wow. In about thirty seconds, we’re going to hear the words ‘bag of dicks’ for the first time ever on public television. Do not tell the Dowager Countess!” Discreetly, the broadcasters opted…