tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195853222024-03-07T10:37:30.744-08:00Wobbly Little LegsMusings on life. Explorations on the politics of place, family, and identity.WobblyLittleLegshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895260998453651517noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-64338161263965033852016-03-22T10:21:00.002-07:002016-03-22T10:21:41.460-07:00In the Land of the Living: Of Energy and IntuitionIn the land of the living, I'm sometimes overcome with bursts of sustained energy. I'm overcome with one right now and from where it's coming from I don't know, but I keep channeling it back out into thing that I love, goals to which I am aspiring, and communities who need it. If you ask me to get involved in something right now I'm bound to say yes. Yes even if I am not sure if I have the time, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-35641134501224470672011-08-20T18:38:00.002-07:002011-10-14T08:59:04.624-07:00Have a Helena Day!I was tempted to use a catchy title for my first blog since moving to Montana, but it seems like everyone has their hands on the phrase "Helena Handbasket." I found a god-loving basket weaver in Indiana who talks to her baskets and uses the moniker, a rock band comprised of middle-aged men in the Fargo-Moorhead area, apparently the local start-up roller derby team also goes by the name, along Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-67109600590809604042011-02-16T17:14:00.001-08:002011-02-16T18:20:46.741-08:00Teaching: Anxiety, Awe, and Excitement.A good teaching day induces both anxiety and excitement. Both of these emotions sustained today, despite the fact that I didn't step into a classroom once. It's conference week. One of the most important weeks for a teacher to connect to their students one-on-one.I'm not going to ignore the fact that some days are bad teaching days. Maybe it's inappropriate conduct in class or a plagiarized paperAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-29441716939334007402011-02-09T13:17:00.000-08:002011-02-10T00:13:43.899-08:00Freedom to Marry Week ConversationsI signed up for this.I didn't have to have a voice in the gay rights movement. I didn't for a long time. I sat quietly in my elementary, junior high, and high school classes and tried to ignore the nasty things said about people like my parents. I didn't call my friends out when they said "faggot" or "homo", "queer" or "dyke" - I might have even used the words myself. I even dated a boy who was Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-77708897531931870442010-04-12T13:24:00.000-07:002010-04-12T16:22:36.355-07:00An Open Letter to Mike Huckabee.Dear Mister Huckabee,What a pleasure it was to come home this afternoon and find your recent comments on children of same-sex parents on my Google News-Feed. Oh, it troubled me for a moment, but it's given me a reason to blog again, and to address an issue that so often comes up for children with same-sex parents and their families. The judgement of our families from people who have no experienceAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-9580084931981906242010-01-09T13:33:00.001-08:002010-01-09T15:56:43.313-08:00Games with DeathThere are wicked games the living play when death is making it's long stride into our worlds, especially if there is time to consider it's arrival. We play with our positioning: How close do we want or need to be? How will our closeness or lack of presence affect the rest of the living? When do we arrive and say our goodbyes, and will death beat us to the bedside? Do we position ourself to see Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-73987848673464469812009-11-24T12:54:00.001-08:002010-01-09T15:09:53.663-08:00To Touch a Diseased BodyTo touch a diseased body is powerful. To watch a pillowy torso turn to a rocky terrain. They mark her body with sharpies, map where her tumors are and point radiation into her abdomen. Her waist is bruised around her sides from injections, as if she’d been beaten and kicked. She lies in a hot bath before me, naked, her body exposed and falling, wrinkles appearing at the corner of her mouth Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-45218997904079347232009-08-11T10:37:00.000-07:002009-08-11T12:24:36.016-07:00Nugget & Buddy: two-syllable, easy-to-say names for my two animals.Nugget & Buddy: two-syllable, easy-to-say names for my two animals. One cat, one dog. Both ripe with character, both I love so much, both a big-ole pain in my ass, and pocket book.First, Nugget, also known as 'beef stick' or 'Noooget' or 'Nugsie', bless her soul, is a 12 pound, 1/2 blind, diabetic, Chi-weinee (chihuahua/dachshund mix) who likes to chase anything that runs and throw herself WobblyLittleLegshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895260998453651517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-7024056422616280782009-08-06T10:13:00.000-07:002009-08-08T08:59:26.589-07:00Interfacing With A MurdererMinam is a place of solace for me; a locale where my distant relatives once tended to timber and made moonshine up the mountain during prohibition times. I go there to listen to the Wallowa River rush by, to watch the cedar waxwings flip and fly over the river catching small flying things, I watch the rafters put in across the river at the boat launch, listen to the Osprey's clip cry, and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-48493169628795138392009-06-21T11:01:00.000-07:002009-06-22T00:09:15.963-07:00Is Feminism Obsolete?In this video forwarded to me by my friend Rebecca Rod, republican strategist, Mary Matalin can't even say "feminism," she stalls every time before she utters the words, which doesn't surprise me, even though she says the feminism she once fought for in the 60s has been perverted over the years. Perverted? By whom? By what?While I stand behind Palin defending her daughters (what mother wouldn't Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-90119086715346364582009-04-11T19:07:00.000-07:002009-04-11T19:41:11.839-07:00A Controlled BurnThe hardest part of negotiating a relationship with my other mother is determining whether or not she is of sound enough mind to maintain contact. We haven't spoken to one another since before Christmas when I decided that her schizophrenia combined with drug and alcohol usage was effecting her ability to have coherent conversations with me. Also, after several phone calls that pursued the same Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-55071643030067243962009-03-02T22:08:00.000-08:002009-03-02T22:52:25.554-08:00The Rising Tide of WhiteEvery morning I look in the mirror and find a razor-gray stripes highlighting my round face. They are prolific little buggers and I've given up trying to control them. It wasn't that I was trying to control them really, what I was trying to control was the red-ended grow out that is the last twenties years of my hair dying experimentation. My reasons for attempting to modify my dye-crazy behaviorAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-1346984070777127612009-01-20T08:36:00.000-08:002009-01-20T10:57:35.446-08:00Many Means of ExpressionOn a day like this, how can one not have something to say?There are many political goings-on that have moved me to tears over the past eight years:My family called from Canada the night before I voted. They left messages on my voice mail saying, "We are just calling to remind you to vote for Gore." But, President George W. Bush's election in 2000 was not one of the events that caused me tears; Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-44656459968390757002008-12-02T23:52:00.000-08:002008-12-03T01:08:21.129-08:00Does My Hair Make My Ass Look Big?Weight: 155 / BMI: 26% / Height: 5'6" / Target Weight: 137-145This is what the internet tells me as I click through site after site of weigh loss advice.Oh, there is no lack of information on the web for how to get your skinny on.The problem, no one is getting skinnier by sitting on their ass at the keyboard.Some people want to get slimmer, some people want to gain weight, and a very few and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-17534626529996927522008-11-07T10:31:00.000-08:002008-11-07T13:04:58.009-08:00Gay PurgatoryMr. Williamson, my high school biology teacher, made his position on homosexuality clear. He posted "Yes on Measure 9" propaganda all over his desk: bumper stickers, fliers, signs, etc. He wore a button on his suspenders, which cuddled the sides of his round belly, everyday. He turned on Rush Limbaugh and let him rattle away his conservative values while we worked away at our labs three days a WobblyLittleLegshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895260998453651517noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-37308060225935617382008-11-04T07:02:00.000-08:002008-11-04T07:48:53.816-08:00The View From Here.When I woke up a half hour ago, my eyes were dry from the pumpkin beer I shared with friends last night. They were dry from staying up too late trying to beat one of my peers in a game of Wordtwister on Facebook. My eyes were dry because, although it rained last night, I now live in the Inland Northwest where we've seen a deliciously crisp and dry run of fall days. It's the season of dark, both Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-54660683488442139762008-09-22T21:07:00.000-07:002008-09-22T23:20:00.081-07:00I Get Around.The temperature for tonight is supposed to dip to just below freezing. 31 degrees to be exact. I'm neither excited nor disappointed by this. At some point, I am going to have to learn to love the cold crisp weather of the inland northwest. Might as well start right away. Two days ago, it was damn near ninety and today, I'm not sure it got over fifty-five. I turned on my thermostat for the first Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-70040904804441410122008-09-11T14:15:00.000-07:002008-09-11T17:15:54.806-07:00A bump in time... I can't get my mind of my left breast - precisely, my left nipple. I can't tell if I imagining that occasional sharp pain or if I have put a tiny bump of fiction there, born of my little, but certainly not irrational fear. Somewhere in the textbooks of my seven year college stint I read that lesbians are more prone to breast cancer than heterosexual women - maybe due to the fact that we don't Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-90729785380971212202008-08-27T20:32:00.000-07:002009-06-22T00:10:33.704-07:00Mosow and It's People.Moving into Moscow has been quite an experience. Although I've only been here a little over a week, I feel as if I have been here for long time. Only now and then do I feel the awkwardness of the newcomer. Particularly when I am interacting with strangers here in this strange town. Morrison had it right, "people are strange when you're a stranger."Yesterday morning, I was waiting at the shuttle Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-71663786258376101132008-08-19T09:24:00.000-07:002008-11-07T13:06:02.761-08:00Moscow, Moscow, Moscow...I've arrived...Since showing up in Moscow with my U-haul trailer packed full of accumulated odds and ends, I've experienced the great hospitality of the local folk. Betty, my sweet overtly religious piano instructing neighbor, showed up on my doorstep Saturday in 100 degree heat with a plate of veggies. "I would've baked cookies" she said "but, its just too hot, so welcome to the neighborhood. WobblyLittleLegshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04895260998453651517noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-59379154470024811932008-07-01T18:58:00.002-07:002008-07-28T09:49:41.897-07:00Minam MayhemLife in Minam is not for the faint of heart...Mothra and I have come to terms with each other. 'Round these parts, the evening light fluttering critter that I'm known to run screaming from, comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. There's no fear of moths in the canyon because I am far out numbered. In order to cope with the magnitude of the moth infestation, I ask myself "What Would Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-5651683632992373092008-06-22T21:28:00.000-07:002011-12-10T13:07:33.741-08:00Rumors on the Rocks: Elk Rock Island’s mysterious and mischievous past“When you’re a kid, you’re a sponge and you’ll take anything someone tells you as gospel”. I agreed with Milwaukie Police Officer Ron Glenn during a recent conversation and told him my generation’s legend is about the ghost of Elk Rock Island, famed to walk on its knuckles and drag its feet around the island in search of human bait.At a recent back yard campfire in my old hometown of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-81825907234621247282008-05-09T12:36:00.000-07:002008-06-23T09:33:31.102-07:00"And Tango Makes Three" tops challenged literature list!I may be behind the times a bit, since the book was released in 2005 but, speaking of behind the times...Oh, good lord... And it appears that some of his followers are at it again.This year, the top book with the most complaints made to the American Library Association are for a children's book titled "And Tango Makes Three" released in 2005 and written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-14603860660787750702008-05-06T14:39:00.000-07:002008-07-08T12:09:42.439-07:00Presence and the illusion of time...Blather is what it's been called. The incessant rattling of thoughts that walk with me in a day. The voice that rarely takes reprieve during my journey. I'm a pensive fuck, it's true - contemplating the past and the future all at once - knowing that a part of me thrives that internal dialogs and neglects the now. Maybe it's requrged spiritual blather. I am 211 pages deep in A New Earth (by Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19585322.post-68476809369826652322008-04-14T23:31:00.000-07:002008-07-08T12:21:45.018-07:00The corner of Nuance and NostalgiaThere I am, standing at the intersection of nuance and nostalgia, with a cell phone in my hand talking my old friend. The entryway to the Housing Authority of Portland is on my right, I am swinging slightly around this pole with a 90 minute parking sign posted an arms length above me. I am barely looking anywhere: antiquated building, cinder block sides, green solar parking meter, red car. I am Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06153824332285470058noreply@blogger.com0