March 2010
17 posts
Taxi dance
Originally posted 03.24.2006
About two months ago, in anticipation of being able to run longer than 20 minutes again some day, I bought an MP3 player. Not an iPod, which has become the label for all of these things irrespective of brand (like Kleenex or Walkman), but a more PC-compatible (so I was told) version. It’s lipstick red and about the size of a cigarette lighter and about as satisfying...
Morning routine
Originally posted 03.13.2006
Salt water, hot, is the first
defense, saline swill
in a cobalt class,
a sleek little cylinder that sits sinkside
amid the clutter of
our personal things: brushes, razors,
soaps and creams.
The cabinet painted thick,
barely latches,
hardly holds and seldom catches
the morning fumble from fingers aching with caffeine and
last night’s lack of restraint—
...
Tribeca Walk
Originally posted 03.13.2006
Heels clack on pavement wet with runoff,
flowing fresh under a
chain-link fence.
How can there be melt-water where there
wasn’t any snow?
All the histories of April
hang by a thread, the weight
in my chest a pendulum
barely swinging.
Gentle rocks, the traffic flows
without malice,
a lullaby of city sound.
Stress fracture
Originally posted 03.01.2006
Six weeks after I stopped running, five weeks after a bone scan inconclusively revealed a stress fracture in my right tibia, nothing seems to have changed. The physiatrist who diagnosed the break told me to get physical therapy and come back in another six weeks. That I’m not ready to run yet. That if I run the way I used to, I’ll just break myself again.
I have...
The ring and I: a roomful of cheating hearts
Originally posted 02.23.2006
I was pretty uncomfortable by myself at the Happy Endings reading series last night. Best I can tell, I was the only person in the room who didn’t know at least three other people there, as the bulk of them seemed to have graduated college together. The readings were from a couple of new books: The Encyclopedia of Exes and Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader. In a fit of...
Nice?
Originally posted 01.26.2006
So, I went to the gym last night to redirect my monthly payments to a different account. This was taken care of by a staff member I’ve seen there in the past—pleasant, friendly, maybe a little too friendly. I’ve always been a little on my guard around him because I feel like he’s either trying to flirt with me or sell me something. But last...
As the flood waters recede
Originally posted 01.20.2006
Sitting on the 4 train on this mid-January day, I feel I could reach through the pages of this magazine into a New Orleans day, end of April, beginning of May. What year, which one of the last four?
The first was a sweet suspension of responsibility after a solitary road trip the length of a river, minus miles on either end, the Boundary Waters, the Gulf of Mexico....
Strike!
Originally posted 12.20.2005
So, here I am, sitting at my desk at the DOH feeling slightly grimy in layers of running clothes and raggedy sweaters that I stuffed into a backpack early this morning before heading out for my first ever run-to-work. It was kind of neat, actually. Anticipating heavy congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge, I started out around 6:30 a.m. Most mornings, I shoehorn myself...
Things are good
Originally posted 11.29.2005
We are gliding fast to the end of my darling month, my favorite, and I’m neither fully satisfied nor ready for December. No, my chilly, quiet gray month was happy and light, warm and relatively sober, well-nourished, friendly, and loving. And sort of loud.
So, there’s a little cognitive dissonance going on here.
I’m pretty happy, I guess, and I have been for a...
Wall? What wall? NYC Marathon 2005
Originally posted 11.10.2005
I’d like to apologize right off the bat—this year’s marathon write-up will not be as amusing as last year’s because there’s just no room in it for self-deprecation. Simply put, I trained really hard, the elements worked in my favor, and I had an awesome race, exceeding my highest expectations.
I arrived at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, early. Really early....
Coil and recoil
Originally posted 11.01.2005
Here we have the first day of my favorite month, my very dear grey, my lovely drear, which I begin by loving first for what it isn’t. It isn’t summer, lush and overblown and bright. And it isn’t for summer people, who are probably the majority—all those who like walking on the beach and getting caught in the rain. (I too like getting caught in the rain, but in the...
A Com-for-ta-ble place
Originally posted 10.26.2005
Last night, sorely in need of a trim, I put my head once again in the hands of my capable hair lady, Holly, who consistently pulls off a feat no other New York hairdresser has managed to accomplish: cut my hair without making me cry.
Once upon a time, I put great faith in the transformative promise of a good cut. As a child, I loved having my hair cut, the raggedy...
Tempered bliss
Originally posted 10.19.2005
Last night I found such incredible bliss, an ecstatic mix of simple delights that form a happiness so deeply satisfying I can barely imagine anything better. Perhaps people who delight in their children experience something even brighter, but I’ll have to leave that open for guessing.
All together in one spot: people I adore, live music to listen to and to play, a...
Waveland Mississippi
Originally posted 10.08.2005
Excerpt from an interview with an orthopedic trauma surgeon who worked on a mobile hospital unit treating victims of the hurricanes.
“This is my read on things: if you’re a law abiding citizen and you need to work within the confines of established rules, you shouldn’t be there the first two weeks, because there are no rules. There’s no electricity, there’s no...
Sleeping in
Originally posted 09.30.2005
I blew off my run this morning. It would have been eight miles, probably incorporating two-thirds of the clockwise park loop and a swing around the cemetery, dawn only beginning to break in the last few miles. But I stayed in bed, in the comfort of soft cotton sweatpants and a fuzzy sweater, smooth sheets, down pillows.
Crazy, crazy girl.
It felt like taking care...
Stella!
Originally posted 09.29.2005
Stella is a name that used to conjure up certain images: the tragic-romantic Stella Kowalski; Stella by Starlight. Short for Estelle, who has a bit of a mustache problem and is somebody’s great-aunt, Stella I always pictured as solid, but definitely girlish, the object of someone’s long-time affection.
But three years ago I moved to Brooklyn and Stella...
Life goes on
Originally posted 09.27.2005
After my last post, I haven't known what to write. Nothing seems that important in light of the devastation of the Gulf; this former resident of a northern Mississippi state is suffering some sort of survivor’s guilt. I sent money. Discussed taking a paid leave to volunteer down there, though I don’t know what I could do.
But we get on with it,...