April 19
“Lie, lie,lie,lie,lie. Sarah Huckabee Sanders”
April 19,1965
1965
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter
I went to K's house today again. This time, tho, her boyfriend, C, was there. He's a real doll, but also a real hood.
Everywhere we went I felt like a fifth wheel. C would be being affectionate with K and I'd be sitting around, doing not much. Well, one of these days I'm going to get me a boy!!
Comment 2006
For those who are unfamiliar with mid-60s western Connecticut slang, hood = greaser, the opposite of a prep.
1973
Went to San Francisco today. Saw mostly Fisherman’s Wharf - shops, etc. SO many things! Musicians, mimes, flowers, cable cars, pretty stucco houses, the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate, flat stretches of green, ideas for crafts. I couldn’t take enough pictures…really worth going. Yet I can’t wait to go home to Syracuse. It been fantastic. People and places…all this in 9 days.
I still have sand in my hair from the wind coming off the ocean.
1987
I didn’t get the $$ for my Smithsonian sabbatical. Now I have to see if I can hustle the $12-18000 I’ll need to make up the difference. I wish I were more confident.
Comment 2024
Given the choice between a half year sabbatical at full pay and a full year at half pay, I took the latter, because time is worth more to me than money. Our credit card screamed, but we made it. And I ended up collaborating on the Smithsonian exhibit and book on gendered clothing, which got me back on track.
1997
A gray squirrel was sitting on a branch above my window. She nibbled on the yellow-green pendants of an oak twig (laden with pollen, I think.) Then Rex, our lovable oaf-dog, barked and she startled, stared in his direction, and fled. Which proves that squirrels are stupid. By now all the squirrels in town must know that Rex is harmless.
It is the weekend, and I will be working, but I am looking forward to it. I truly enjoy being in my office undisturbed, and know that I will get lots done.
Second observation: scented candles smell better when they are not lit.
2018
Lunch at Riderwood
S and I mixed up the usual routine by meeting B at Riderwood for lunch and a tour. The conversation was pleasant and the food tasty. It was hard following them around, B with “Wally Walker” and S on her two canes. My friends are aging, just a little ahead of me. This is life.
Comment 2024
…and now both Beth and Sandy are gone.
2019 (Twitter; sent while attending April Ryan’s keynote talk at the Pop Culture Conference in DC.) Yes, I am cheating, but this one is too good to pass up.
Comment 2023
Where to begin? This is what happens when I pile on too many layers. First, a few random notes:
My friend K was one of a handful of childhood acquaintances who were polio survivors. Living in a 60+ retirement community, I now have even more friends experiencing post-polio syndrome. They have *opinions” on anti-vaxxers. Very strong opinions.
The photo of Mom with the As cap in front of the Golden Gate Bridge was taken in homage to my Dad’s lifelong love affair with the Athletes, from the time was he was a small boy in New Jersey and they were in Philadelphia. If the internet had existed then, I could have texted the photo to my father and he could have seen it while he was shtupping his girlfriend. Thanks to his journaling habits, I now know what he was up to while we were in California.
Rex was so harmless that when a friend stuck her hand through our mail slot to drop off a note, he licked her hand.
There I am, five years ago, having lunch where I live now. S is still chugging along; B is gone.
I wish I had a recording of April Ryan’s speech. She came right to the convention hotel from AG William Barr’s press conference on the Mueller Report. Remember that? She was spitting mad and absolutely on fire. I do believe she threw away her prepared notes.
More from April’s talk:
“Lie, lie,lie,lie,lie. Sarah Huckabee Sanders”
“When they suppress the press, it’s because they don’t want you to know the truth.”
“Ain’t this a sad day?”
And finally,
“What is your state of dis-ease? What are you going to do?”
Where am I today? Thankfully, less judgey about people’s appearances than I was at fifteen. Dogless, those I do miss having them around. Happy to be where and how I am. Thinking that breaking my own rule and posting something from April 18th instead of the 19th is totally worth it. I’ll fix it next year, if I am still around.
Comment 2024
Still around; didn’t fix it. Sue me.