Category: Blog

Regarding Pima County and where I’ve been all this time (hint: not in Pima County)

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So, I’ve just discovered that my second book, Following Grandpa Jess, is available to borrow from the Pima County Public Library in Pima County, Arizona:

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Pima County Library: Following Grandpa Jess

It’s not available in Chicago, sadly, or anywhere else that I’m aware of, but Pima County residents, enjoy!

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In other news, regarding my lengthy and unexplained absence from the interwebs, I’m afraid I’ve been somewhat distracted as of late due to (a) getting a new job, and (b) finally beginning to completely bankrupt myself pursue my MFA in Creative Writing. The good news is that both endeavors are going well (though the compensation received for one in no way makes up for the bottomless pit of debt the other is going to plunge me into), but the bad news is that I’m sadly left with very little time or brain for the composing of blog posts, hence my silence in recent months.

I’ll do my best to pop in from time to time and offer up rambling and borderline incoherent gif-filled posts, so you can at the very least look forward to that. I’ve also been doing a lot of work on Chosen as of late, and I remain confident that it may be ready for publication at some point between today and the end of time, space, life, the universe, and everything. So. More things to look forward to.

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Right. So. On that note, I must return to my teacherly duties. Wishing you all a pleasant first day of September, and I hope our paths will cross again~*~*~*~*~

 

Women, amirite?

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It intrigues me when people imply that women are weak or unsuited for *insert job here* because they get periods. Dude, we gush blood every month, have sometimes debilitating abdominal cramps, and just generally feel like crap, but we still get up and go to work and get shit done. Oh, and there’s also that bit where some women push tiny humans out of their bodies, which while not something I’d ever want to do, is still pretty freaking amazing.

So, yeah. It kind of pisses me off that “don’t be such a girl” is an expression meaning, “Don’t be so weak.” Girls are freaking TOUGH, man.

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…this post may or may not have been inspired by the fact that my uterus is trying to kill me today. Wheeee~~~

/very important post #897

Brilliant-Clever-Awesome Title Goes Here

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This weekend, alas, has been something of a bust. I’ve managed, against all odds, to accomplish a few things – I opened a Word file and stared at it for awhile, which is almost like writing, and I even rage-washed the dishes (a convenient way to expel anger, tidy up the kitchen, and keep warm on a wintry day).

But for the most part, I’ve been a sad, lumpy lump of sadness, lying around watching stuff on my laptop and shouting into the soul-sucking black hole that is social media.

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Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut enough of that. Today is a new day, and there’s still time to turn this weekend around. I will Get Stuff Done, dammit. I will GET STUFF DONE.

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/very important post

Sugar and spice and a nice, satisfying scream of frustration and rage

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Today, on Things That Make Me Want To Scream:

  1. Little girls are encouraged to like certain toys and certain colors, behave a certain way, and enjoy certain activities.
  2. Little boys are encouraged to like certain toys and certain colors, behave a certain way, and enjoy certain activities.
  3. Little girls who stray too far in the “boyish” direction receive a small to medium amount of disapproval, and are lavishly praised when they do anything more traditionally feminine.
  4. Little boys who stray too far in the “girlish” direction receive a great heaping crap-mountain of disapproval, and are told again and again to “act like a man” or not “be such a girl.” (Being a girl in this case = being weak, silly, emotional, shameful, etc.)
  5. Unsurprisingly, assaulting children with a massive barrage of operant conditioning (positive reinforcement for behaving “correctly,” negative reinforcement for behaving “incorrectly”) leads them to feel pressured to fall in line, and to accept that “this is what a girl is,” and “this is what a boy is.”
  6. Idiot People then look at this result and say, “See? Boys and girls are so DIFFERENT. They just naturally gravitate towards different interests.”

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This has been today’s edition of Things That Make Me Want To Scream. Thank you for your attention, and have a pleasant day.

In which nicotine and Mitt Romney break my fragile heart

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So, it’s been awhile. A long while. A very long while. Vast ages of the earth have passed, civilizations have risen and fallen, lizardy creatures have risen from amoeba-filled puddles to reign over the land and subsequently be wiped out of existence, and during all that time, I have somehow failed to update my blog.

For my faithful readers, few and potentially mentally unstable though they may be, I offer my deepest apologies.

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In any case, rather than getting too deeply into what I’ve been up to over the last few months (working, writing, writing, working, etc.), I’ll jump straight into the Very Important subject of this entry.

Today, dear readers, I would like to speak to you about a girl. And not just any girl, but The Girl, whose path happened to cross mine for one beautiful and fleeting train ride yesterday morning. What follows is a story of love and heartbreak, beauty and tragedy, lipstick and disappointing bumper stickers, in which the fondest desires of my fragile little heart were dashed to pieces by cruel, cruel fate.

Read on, friends, and ready yourselves for a tale of utmost woe.

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