i don't approve of the LGBT "label".. it seems to be a simple "lumping together" of everything and everybody

i had a dream about a very sick puppy, found in a parking lot .. we tried to put it in a cage but it wouldn't budge

...overwhelmed with emotion while formatting a manuscript that outlines classic and contemporary YA fiction in canada..

by necessary exception:

f's (other) phrase of the month: my hearing is impaired when i'm lying down

an overturned beetle tried hard to right itself before we were able to help it over.. but the poor thing had a broken leg

it was painful to watch ..and almost impossible to end its suffering 

in response to an ad on TV ("..pop goes the world..")

f's phrase of the month: I'm pop ..and I goes the world

"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

a toast of wine and dandelions

i had hoped (unreasonably, illogically) that i would not have to find the words to say this for some time..

i inhaled ray bradbury as a teenager. part of the triad of my youth (dickens, bradbury, conan doyle), he remained there, for a while, gently collecting dust. when i re-read the martian chronicles in my 20s and was again struck by the beauty of his quiet prose--the improbable depth of his barren lives and worlds--the corners of my life curled inward in a trance.

i'm certain that in the coming years i will find more to love.. more to criticize.. for bradbury, having published his first collection at 27, wrote always like an old man, watching the passing of time.

gone, now, is a literary giant, a great talent, a natural storyteller. but most of all--a reader.

rest in peace

you are in my heart.. all of you.. always

doctor-assisted suicide can no longer be an issue of debate

the possibility of ending it is one of the things that makes life bearable

five weeks at OUP Canada. i should have a 'foot in the door,' so to speak...

i can't help feeling as if it's the wrong foot

عيني وأنا شيفو

i think there is no limit to the amount of garbage i can listen to in arabic and persian, both

the first-upon-return

f's witticism-of-the-month:

no, you're not a visible minority; you're an invisible minority. you're so small, you can be seen only through a microscope

with the rush to find a full-time job (and the slight panic of actually finding one), i had very little time to make the psychological transition out of school. so when i found myself back on campus last week i felt an unexpected blow to the stomach..

long, and sharp, and awful.

عزیزم

گریه نکن

برگرد به من

a few nights ago, a dream -

i stood in the kitchen of an empty, renovated home, with a man. we circled around each other, conscious of the attraction.. neither of us willing to make a move.

he took my hand, as if making some decision, and led me to the bedroom..

**

i woke up with the deep regret that i could remember no more than half-glimpses of what followed

politically-motivated or not.. there was a catch in my throat after obama's announcement; i feel privileged to have witnessed it

the heart is a lonely hunter

that morning - a lone duck, crying for its flock, flying frantically in the direction of home

that afternoon - a blue balloon, drifting over the subway tracks

عطر کتاب

loveliness

Congratulations on your graduation, your new job, and your new townhouse!!! So much to be proud of!

All the best,

Andrea & Rob