If there’s one thing Southern gals know how to do, it’s gab. Silly or serious, all it takes is a glass of iced tea and time. Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, and make yourself comfy…get ready to dish!
Trick or Treat!
All Hallow’s Eve–or, in other words, a built in excuse to eat too much candy without guilt. This year, Chez mimi will be disgorging a slightly (only very slightly) naughty Alice in Wonderland and a Rastafarian to ply the neighbors for free goodies. Wonder who’s showing up at the door?In the witch’s kettle: fun size Twix, Milky Way, and Three Musketeers. I probably should have bought Snickers because I have no problem resisting them. Oh, well. Live and learn. That, and lie in wait to steal Reese’s Cups from my kids.
read moreThe Bed List
Gerard Butler…(release long sigh). Scottish. Handsome. Muscles. Wicked twinkle in his eye. Plus, he had the good sense not to take up with Jennifer Aniston despite clamoring urge from tabloid media to do so. (Really, what is it about her? I just don’t get it.) You just know he’d be a rollicking good time. And I do mean rollicking.
read moreTo Autumn
In honor of my favorite season and this week’s lovely cool snap, enjoy this classic ode from John Keats:SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness! Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will...
read moreNatal Days
My grandfather, accomplished raconteur and all-around gentleman that he was, used to refer to birthdays with the quaint term “natal day” when writing birthday letters and the like. Daddy has picked it up, usually wishing me a happy natal day on one of the cards he sends (one’s always funny, one’s always “a serious card” in honor and mockery of a long-ago Hallmark TV commercial).Well, today is, in fact, my Natal Day. Since I am no longer a child, I don’t expect it to be an orgy of wow. It’ll probably be a regular day, full of work and...
read moreJournal Ho
I am a bad writer.I don’t mean bad writer in the sense of my writing is bad (at least, I hope that’s not the case), but that I am bad. I do bad things. I do not have an appropriately writerly persona.Take journaling, for instance. I have lots of journals. Lovely journals. Journals with just the right kind of paper, the creamy velvety kind that calls to you in a sultry voice, “Get your fountain pen and touch me, darling, the sensation will be eeeeeeeeeeexquisite.”And what do I do? The equivalent of the one-night stand....
read moreThe Bed List
It’s election season, and whenever politics gets stupid and creepy (okay, stupider and creepier than usual), that’s the time to tune in more regularly to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.One thing about getting older (coming soon!) is the realization that hot means nothing unless you have a brain to go with. Luckily, Mr. Stewart racks up the points in both areas. Early-grey semi-distinguished-looking sparkly-eyed? Check. Smart enough to make you snort your Dr Pepper up your nose laughing at what he just said? Check. He has a crack team of...
read moreDeva Diva
Ladies, can we just admit that our longest, most frustrating relationship in the world isn’t with a man, but with our hair? If you’re a curly like me who grew up in the stick-straight Marsha Brady ’70s, you know what I’m talking about. So it was with relief and joy that I discovered the Bible for hair like mine, Lorraine Massey’s amazing Curly Girl.Ms. Massey, who underwent curly trauma growing up in England, hit on two things that will forever change your relationship with your curls: throwing out the shampoo bottle (conditioner and...
read morePerspective
It’s so tempting to spend time dwelling–well, carping really–on all of your issues. Why your life is screwed up. Why things never seem to go right. Why there’s never enough time to get all those tasks around the house finished so you have time to do what you want. As we used to say in college, BBATTB. (Bitch, bitch, all the time bitch)Thankfully, we also have opportunities for a little perspective. Mine came today in the form of a phone call from a lost student. This is a girl who had it all–slim, gorgeous hair, smart,...
read moreCirque du Maman
It’s quiet in my house this Saturday morning, but I know that won’t last. Frick is at a friend’s, Frack has a friend over, Mr. Man has completed his crack o’dawn coffee meeting and is now about to go bike riding with a friend, and mimi has squirrels.Every mother on the planet knows about the squirrels–the ones who camp out in your brain, jumping about and chatteringchatteringchattering about everything you need to do or haven’t done or have in process or are trying to stick into a dank corner and let rot. Since school started, the...
read moreNew Pencil Smell
Here we are–the end of the first week back at school for teachers. The kids come in Monday. I’ve been working and scrubbing all week, thanks to a last-minute classroom move. I still have plenty to do today, what with meetings and copies and lesson plans and all, but the excitement is in the air!I’ve always been an office supply girl. I get far more excited over a luxurious fountain pen, a fistful of freshly-sharpened pencils, or finding the perfect journal than I ever do about shoes or clothes. The aroma and ambience of a high-quality...
read more
