http://www.openopenclose.net Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:49:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's a dark and stormy night in North Saint Paul, and I am alone in a guest bedroom. Sleeping by myself during weather like this would probably bother me if I hadn't spent the majority of my childhood rereading A Wrinkle In Time. Our copy resided at my dad's old ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/the-house-shook/ In ten short days, I'm submitting this week's Branches story (#5) to the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Contest. I just started it tonight, (Note: tardy as usual. Man, beginning anything is terrifying. Before you know it -- perhaps in a matter of minutes, seconds! -- it could become something ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/hold-me-im-nervous/ Seven years ago, a girl named Sara moved in across the hall from me in our college dorm. Four years ago I held a corner of her chuppah. Two years ago she and her husband moved from San Francisco to across the street from the apartment Maria and I shared, ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/hello-baby-goodbye-somerville/ Or, How I Learned To Stop Resisting Conformity And Love Life It was for the standard little-girl reasons -- prairie life, petticoats, ponies -- that my sister and I loved watching Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. But perhaps equal blame should be assigned to Laura Ingalls Wilder and her irresistible boxed set ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/sullied/ I just stumbled upon my first criticism from the reading public! It is on a funeral industry/management blog. Tim, You do find the most unusual stuff in your voyage thru the net. I liked the office site, but I don’t get the chick writing about the funeral. She must be one of ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/in-which-i-am-discovered/ I don't know how to begin writing fiction, so . . . I'm not. I'm leaving the beginnings up to other authors, and branching off — from whatever I wind up underlining, dog-earring, generally wanting more of. Currently reading: Tuesday; An Art Project (Issue 3): "Grief And The Imaginary Grave" by ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/08/branches-4-notes-on-a-funeral/ For seven years, I've been in a long-distance relationship with Minneapolis. Holidays were never long enough. I eagerly plotted my return, the neighborhood I would live in, the books I would carry to rose garden picnics. I networked. I made long-term plans with friends. My ballots have been absentee for ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/07/youve-changed/ The house had such a stupifying abundance of rooms that, every time I learned how to reach one of them, I would catalogue sights along the way, memorizing routes. It was like dropping bread crumbs. Each time I prayed for the ability to find the damn thing again. Pass the picture ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/07/the-surgeons-estate/ I don't know how to begin writing fiction, so ... I'm not. I'm leaving the beginnings up to other authors, and branching off — from whatever I wind up underlining, dog-earring, generally wanting more of. Currently reading: The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret.* * * They'll play a Keith Jarrett ... http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/07/branches-3-the-plan/ What happens when you take ten total friends/strangers and put them in a two-bedroom cabin in the middle of nowhere? Shit starts to get real, obviously. Real eggy. An afternoon swim with watermelon. Maple cookie button with heart imprint! See all pictures from all kinds of fancy cameras here. http://www.openopenclose.net/2008/07/postcards-from-the-vermonster/