Shaving

Once I caught Grandma shaving in the bedroom mirror
She was embarrassed and laughed.

Sunday Night Chinese

I love The Mandarin, it's so warm and luxurious, plus I get to be alone with Daddy for the whole ride here and back. I'm a little afraid here though, it's dark and adult feeling. There is a bar made of what looks like leather, fake leather I guess, and it's too tall for me to see over. I look at the front of it where there are designs made with upholstery tacks. The design in front of me is a martini glass.

Daddy talks amiably with the owner who brings our food in crisp brown paper bags, neatly folded over with the check stapled on. I'm so hungry, I almost can't stand the 40 minute drive home before we can eat. The egg rolls are not like the pale cabbage filled things you get today, but fat and crispy with whole shrimp inside.

Now I understand that we chose a restaurant so far away so that my Dad could be away from the house longer, but I still don't understand exactly why.

Toof

More about Grandma

Every morning she put her hair up perfectly without a mirror and every evening she'd brush it 100 strokes. My sister and I marveled at its length. I thought it looked like a horse's tail.

What Goes Around...

Not sure where this image came from, but there it is.

Grandma

Midnight or so, we'd pick her up. It was always cold.

Being Sued

Little Story

This little story is from a killer writing workshop I was lucky enough to take with Lynda Barry this fall:

I am at Caroline's house after school. We watched Speed Racer and now we're looking at the fish tank. We both think the shark is the coolest with his red tail. I want one. There are also neon tetras which glow. Everything is glowing, the tetras, the TV, the aquarium itself. Mrs. Sommers is in the kitchen behind us. It glows too. It's so cozy in this house I love it. I love this time of year and this time of day and somehow Caroline and I can't stop laughing. She has the coolest clothes and hair, granny glasses and long straight California hair. She actually is from California so that's even cooler. This is while we're still friends, before she quit talking to me and started hanging out with Suzanne. She has two dachshunds, Max and Michelle. Michelle i s a miniature and smaller but we like them both. It's ok for Max to be bigger and quiet because he's a boy dog. There is plush wall to wall carpeting in all the bedrooms here. Mrs. Sommers does her butt exercise, inching her way across the pale green soft carpet on her seat. She drives a yellow 4-4-2. Beautiful pale yellow. All Caroline has is amazing.

1st little drawing: Me without caffeine