Does this make sense?

There is a consistency that comes with pets. This is no accident. They rely on routine: the morning walk, the evening cuddle, the suppertime snack of table scraps. Pets don’t read the news and don’t care what’s going on in the nation’s capital. They are focused, fixated; their needs define their clock, and by definition, yours.

Return to the woods

I reapplied to MacDowell.

I requested two weeks as opposed to a month. If I get in, I'll ask for a studio that's closer in. I'll better understand what I need in order to be happy three thousand miles away from home.

If at first you don't succeed, go back.

It's 1992 on 10 at 10

In the Iliad room putting the newspaper together, I hear the Rodney King verdict. My Toyota Celica is parked outside. I don't think there's a speed limit on campus, our newspaper advisor told me, but if there were I have a feeling you've broken it. Bricks are being thrown at heads less than two hours north, but I'm line-taping. Later Tom and I will sit on a power box, back to back, singing TV theme songs, children with driver's licenses.

An open letter to my mother-in-law

I'm tired of being quiet about this.

You have not spoken to me for a year. During that time you have barely spoken to your son. You want to know why I don't want to visit. If you can't be bothered to speak to me, why should I make the trip to Los Angeles for the same type of treatment?

You want to be closer to your son. I wanted to help make that happen. Somehow that message got garbled along the way, and I do not plan to repeat it.

I will not get in the way of a relationship between the two of you. I will also not prostrate myself. You figure out the intersection there.

I'm into the things we can only do for ourselves. No one can go to the gym for you. Nobody can repair your strained relationships with friends and family. And nobody can -- or should -- write a book on your behalf.

My heart aches with optimism and hope for my little Project. It has so much potential, and I say that without arrogance. I simply know it's true.

I was drunk, for the record.

ME: Are YOU drunk?

ADAM: (Having spilled his champagne and blackberry cordial on the couch.) I may just be uncoordinated.

2010

Toasting with Mike!
Adam and Carl, two versions of the Savior.
Rebecca and Angela, who made Oliver a very happy neuter.
Carl brought Cosmos. I drank them.
Boy, does Oliver look pissed off!
Chili in the slow cooker, a bunch of nosheri elsewhere.
Pre-party.