memories the family

Do you ever wonder what could happen under … under the umbrella chair?

This is the one family heirloom that my sister and I might actually eventually fight over. We have always called it “the umbrella chair,” but I think it’s actually called a canopy chair. This chair always kept a prominent spot in my mother’s mother’s house (trailer) while I was growing up. Snagging a spot in this chair during family gatherings was always a tough job, as everyone always wanted to sit in it. Its red…

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memories relationships the manfriend travel

Jackpot

Sometimes it’s 11 p.m. and the boy you’re smitten with emerges from the office, where he’s been studying, and says, “Want to go for a drive?” because he’s got to run some fancy magic juice through his gas tank so he can pass his emissions test in the morning. And that is how you will find yourself going east, east, east, and telling him to drive you past your very first Memphis apartment, which gives…

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memories photos

That was the last time we let the children finish the eggnog

I remember that peach jogging suit. I was 10 or 11. I was doing the tango with puberty. It was an ugly, lumpy time. I have been up all night scanning old photos with the new fancy scanner that doesn’t even need me to draw boundaries around photos before saving them. IT JUST KNOWSSS!!! Technology is the best. A metric crapload of what I uploaded tonight got transfered to Flickr and Facebook; blame the booze…

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memories Memphis photos

His reach is far and wide

While digging through old photos today to scan into the new scanner I recently introduced to my other electronics (they are getting along swimmingly for now), I found a photo of the boys in my fifth-grade class, their names labeled on the back. And I remembered I went to school with an Elvis. Try and figure out which kid is named after the King: Click the picture to be taken to Flickr to see the…

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friends memories randomosity

Old timers

Last weekend I traveled to my hometown to reunite with two of my very oldest friends, Tamara and Crystal. We were thick as thieves in high school (with bouts of adolescent spattiness throughout our friendships, of course), and then went our separate ways after graduation. Tamara and I — with the exception of some months of no communication because we are sometimes stubborn, foolish girls — have mostly kept in constant contact, but I lost…

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memories the family

Grandmaw’s back yard

My grandmother broke her shoulder during a fall a few weeks ago, and now she’s living in Decatur County with my aunt and uncle until she regains control of her arm and can once again perform all those awesome arm functions that differentiate human adults from human babies. Ass wiping, mostly. (Grandmaw, if you ever read this, I hope you will laugh at that joke and not be scandalized. I love you and the internet…

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memories yardlust

Little things

My yard — hell, my entire neighborhood — smells like honeysuckle right now. The entirety of the western fence in my back yard is draped with the stuff. I snuck two licks of nectar the other day and thought about all those times as a kid I’d been out in a pasture somewhere and felt like I’d found some exotic delicacy when I came upon a clump of sweet honeysuckle blooms.

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memories Murfreesboro music

‘I’m really glad there’s a grasp to grab’

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Built to Spill. I’ve loved that band for years but for some reason recently their sound fits neatly into my life in ways it did when I first really got into them. I used to steal all kinds of their lyrics for blog post titles back in 2003 or so. There is something about their music and Doug Martsch’s voice that will always remind me of my…

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memories music musings yardlust

‘She’s got a system made of metal and magnet bits inside a brain’

I had a moment with a robin today. Might be the same one who always pops up when I’m outside in the yard. Saraclark says he’s waiting for me to move branches and leaves and uncover worms for him to eat. So I guess I’m being used. But it’s still pretty interesting to be minding your own business and then turn around to see a bird two feet from you, watching your every move. I…

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memories why am I telling you this?

Question answered: ‘What’s an ideal fella to you?’

From ye olde Formspring: I’ve never introduced myself to you, in person at least. I think you are intelligent, attractive, a wonderfully acerbic wit, creative, enviable, enigmatic, intriguing, and constantly searching. What’s an ideal fella to you? Hot dang! I like fellas who heap on the sweet words. That’s pretty much ideal. :) (

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