I often feel that as a responsible human, I should stay informed about my fellow humans. Yes, injustice and depravity have always existed, but...damn, y'all. Cruelty feels ramped up to terrifying levels. This may certainly be because we have access to news 24/7 from hundreds of streams. We are so flooded with nightmare fuel, we …
Author: mapelba
I'm a writer, artist, teacher, mother, wife, daughter, friend, coffee addict... What else? A success, a failure, a mess, a fan, a hater of housework, a lover of dogs, a liberal, an obsessive, and a bunch of other things that probably would never occur to me. I reveal myself in more ways in my writings and art than in any list of adjectives. And whoever you are, I hope most of all that you are a reader.
Weeknotes Back on Track
You know when you've tried hard to do what you believe is the right thing, but it blows up in your face? There's a mess, and it looks impossible to clean. But I'm trying to get back to using my time for art and writing. I'm going to be selling my wares at the Violet …
Weeknotes, What a Week.
You know when something happens that you very much didn't expect and don't want? It's been a painful week. These days it feels as if the bullies are winning everywhere, on the world stage and in the private rooms. I'm exhausted and sad and angry and several other emotions besides. But as they say, the …
Честита Баба Марта
sunflowers in Bulgaria Happy Baba Marta! Happy Grandmother March! If you click on the link, you can learn more about the holiday. Unsurprisingly, I was fairly pleased to learn of a holiday with my name in it, even if I wasn't a grandmother. The tradition of giving someone a martenitsa on March 1st, and then …
Weeknotes and Nurses Everywhere
Mom died suddenly. She was there, and then she wasn't. An aortic aneurysm killed her at 45. Now Dad is 89. He's not sick and bedridden, but currently, because of a fall, he's in a skilled nursing center, and there are many things he loves to do that he is not doing. Perhaps Mom would've …
Weeknotes again, and what a week.
This week began as usual. The country's dumpster fire continued apace. Papers needed grading. Appointments waited. Then Dad fell again. It's his second fall. If you've taken care of an aging parent, you know the problems falls bring. So we headed to the ER. Papers didn't get graded. Appointments got booted down (or off) the …
Head in the Clouds (Weeknotes)
I don't think my head has actually been in the clouds--metaphorically or otherwise. I've been too grounded in the news. Or sucked into the news like a 1970s tv character into quicksand. Except the news is real. No director is going to yell cut and end the scene. If only... But between the destruction and …
January on Fire (Weeknotes)
Literal and metaphorical fires are burning everywhere, and I do not have a sufficient water supply. Who does for this conflagration? But what is community for if not to bring those buckets together--those heavy buckets, rusty buckets, buckets with holes, buckets without handles, all the buckets belonging to those with sense and decency to know …
It’s Still January. Weeknotes.
Well, I used to like Neil Gaiman. But I never read Sandman, and the first book of his stories I read, I only partially liked. I particularly enjoyed a story about an old woman who bought the Holy Grail at a thrift shop. A few stories I didn't like at all, and most of the …
What-a-Week Weeknotes
One friend is in the hospital. I don't want to say much about it because her situation is ongoing and I don't want to throw her business too far into the internet. And really, there's a lot I don't know about her situation anyway. We message each other almost every single day, and something was …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 