Real letters about real women
4:32 a.m., May 22
Blog Winners for 2011
December
Notes on American Freedom
My first 2 hours on American soil — Dallas Ft. Worth airport to be exact — were spent in long lines: ‘Freedom’ lines. Because I’d complained about the wait to the person next to me, the gentleman behind us felt compelled to explain that standing in longer lines was a ...
Geezerville
I used to scoff at people who lived in senior citizen communities. I called them “Geezervilles,” and swore I would never live in one of them. Not me. I’m too hip. But, after yet another unmanageable rent increase, there I was with most of my possessions in the back of ...
The Christmas Tool
I was up early today watching for Santa Claus/The U.S. Postal Service. I have never been threatened by, or treated poorly by, a member of the United States Postal Service. I have however been accused of being anti-government. I am not anti-governmert. I am anti-corruption, and while waiting on my ...
November
From Life in Ohio to Life on Ohio
From Life in Ohio to Life on Ohio
A women goes over 2,000 miles west and ends up in the same place, how is this possible? I didn’t pull that question out of the MindTrap deck (note cultural reference that makes me feel smug), but I did move from the state of Ohio to Ohio Street. I am ...
Doggy Doo On a Village Woods Balcony
Well, the kooky neighbors are at it again at Village Woods. The upstairs neighbor finally rented her apartment to, wait for it, a weirdo. But before I go on and on about the new weirdo upstairs, I feel the need to explain about the sliding glass doors at Village Woods, ...
The Japatul Fire Station: For Jerry Schad
The thing that keeps hikers going is an insatiable desire to see what is beyond the crest of the next hill. Even late in the afternoon, when we know that we really should be getting back to the car before nightfall, which is the time when hungry mountain lions are ...
October
Roaming Solitary in the Sands
Fourteen miles south of San Diego and five miles north of the land where Tequila pours like honey lays the surfing Mecca known as Imperial Beach –or “IB” as it is referred to locally. I sit in the Forum, the most southwesterly saloon in the emancipated Union. With a frosty ...
Crimes against Americans in Baja
The news flowing northward out of Baja California of late paints a worrisome portrait. More and more Americans are being attacked, robbed and murdered. Here are some news items from just the past two months. Many of these items were never reported in US newspapers: September 2, 2011 - American ...
Tiny Headstones
The sound of the traffic ranges from “oh my god, are they are going to hit the house”, to white noise in those areas where there are a couple of houses to buffer the unending drone. You know that the air is probably revolting, but there are lots of birds. ...
September
A Grant Writer's Story
I live and work in San Diego, but sometimes I have to put myself in a fictitious world to do my job. I take on the persona of a character in the book I'm reading at the time. This week I'm reading the Maltese Falcon, and I'm Sam Spade, private ...
When the power goes out
Twelve hours now, the power's been out. And I'm writing by candlelight in the kitchen. The only thing technologically enhanced about this is my .7mm mechanical pencil (do I have enough lead?). I'd be writing on my iphone, except it's gone. Kaput. The battery is, anyway. And that's the issue. ...
San Diego, Unplugged
Top Ten Reasons to have a blackout Now we know who we’re related to, electrically speaking Finally got to use 2-year-old new emergency radio & flashlight Neighbors out on porches, talking and laughing Kids playing impromptu soccer games in the street Proof that there really are millions of stars in ...
August
"Where Hummingbirds Land"
Butterflies, lady bugs and hummingbirds fascinated me when I was a child. Raised by my grandparents, who were avid gardeners, I still mark my year by the growing seasons. Hummingbirds especially piqued my curiosity. For unlike butterflies and lady bugs, you could never get close to hummingbirds. They are fast ...
Over there by the bowling alley
A long time ago I was new to the city, so I relied on my buddy and roommate to show me the sights. He worked over on University in that office complex between the library and the bank. He grew up on Dale right where it blends into Upas and ...
Consider the Snake
If you listen, carefully, you can hear the rattles under the house, beneath the bathroom floor. You disturb that snake, every time you set foot in the bathroom. Unnerving, the babysitter called it. Rodent control others might call it. But there is indeed a snake living under the house. A ...
July
The Watching Birds
Just the other day, late in the afternoon, I was sitting on the couch, reading the Reader (yes, really!), when I sensed something large watching me through the front picture window in our living room. Engrossed in my reading, it took me a moment to raise my head and investigate. ...
An Absolutely True Story of Being Deported at Age 14
By Raul and Mr. Carrillo At first, I was scared to share this story about me getting deported. First of all, I am not a good writer yet. I am only 16 years old. English is my second language. Spanish is my first. So when I decided to tell this ...
John Wayne is on my plate.
I pull up to the line where "occasional" vendors purchase a spot, and am greeted with a "got a sellers permit?" by a less than enthusiastic employee of the swap-meet. After securing a space, I navigate my truck into my nursery-for-the-day...I'm here to sell some succulents and dragon fruit plants ...
June
Coasting
Heading down the stairs to the mezzanine at the back of the car, I attempt a bank shot into the corner trash bin with the straw from my morning coffee, my other hand tightly grasping the handrail. I wait impatiently in line behind eight others who will disembark at the ...
The Conundrum of Desert Farming
Swaying in a hammock strung beneath palm trees on a cliff side high above Rainbow Valley, a tiny village just east of the unincorporated town of Fallbrook, I look out fifteen some odd miles over hills sloped with age old groves of oak, olive and avocado trees to the horizon ...
Royal Highland Island
If you were to ask most San Diegans back then about Kearny Mesa, they would generally answer with a question, “Isn’t that Clairemont?, or “you mean Linda Vista?” We always felt a bit inferior to the more coastal and larger Clairemont, and a bit insulted by our association with Linda ...
May
Then and Now
When I watch the Twilight Zone, or old horror movies from the forties and fifties, I miss the fact that almost everything terrifying that happened in them was left up to your imagination. Yes, most of the movie monsters of old, when they were finally revealed, left a lot to ...
The Walls are Closing In
I am surrounded by papers and books at 10:30 at night. I am trying to concentrate on writing a rhetorical masterpiece on the financial recession of 2008 that will hopefully get me an A in my freshman rhetoric and writing class at San Diego State University. But like any regular ...
Weed Wednesday
It's Hump Day to most. Weed Wednesday to me. When I get home after a long day, I know there will be people huddled in a group smoking weed in the alley. This should shock me or disturb me or make me look away, but it is something familiar and ...
April
Interloper
My cell phone makes a faint sound and I fumble for it. Perplexed, I summon up a text message, momentarily tuning out the buzz of Spanish conversations around me. "Welcome to Mexico," Verizon tells me. "Dial 001 & 10 Digit Number to call US. Local Calls dial the Number." (sic) ...
Other People's Children
OK people, say what you want about other people's children. Sometimes they're noisy, often they're misbehaved and sometimes it's even the parent's fault. But, unless the child is being abused, you have no right to speak harshly to them or their parents. This happened to me on Friday. Twice. One ...
Faith Cougar
I live in a mobile home park in Spring Valley, so it’s a neighborhood inside a neighborhood. We are bounded by Jamacha Boulevard and the reservoir on the south side, and a housing development on the north and east sides. After my house was sold, the divorce settled and the ...
March
"Carol, call me!" my thursday travelogue
Could've called it my Thursday travels ...but thought travelogue sounded more important and whats more important than my day . Like everything ! But to satisfy my urge to satisfy my expressive side ( yes I meant to say satisfy twice ) I could not bear the thought of not ...
Painted Lady
From many neighborhoods in San Diego, you can look out and see other neighborhoods. That’s how it is in a city of hills. When I lived on Boundary Street, in North Park, I could look out my front window and see what seemed to be the last big hill before ...
Waxing Nostalgic
About two years ago, my wife and I responded to an ad for a one bedroom apartment for rent in the bizarre Bermuda Triangle where the 8 and Sports Arena Boulevard collide. Not quite ready to move at this point, we were intrigued by the Craigslist posting which described an ...
February
Massage Theraphist
Starting your own business is hard work. Really hard work. There’s the Mission Statement, the Business Plan, Tax and Insurance issues. You need to consider whether you want to be a Sole Proprietor or in a Partnership, possibly even a Corporation. And what about employees? Is one too few but ...
Sidewalks and Barn Animals
I think delivery drivers cut their teeth in Valley Center. What better way to test a newbie driver’s mettle than to drop him unceremoniously in the outback of the County, in an area with a road system that ties even the best GPS in knots. The location of my house ...
January
Dueling Ideologies In Pacific Beach
Dueling Ideologies In Pacific Beach
It is just before noon on a Saturday morning and many of the collegic inhabitants of Pacific Beach are just now wiping the sleep from their eyes, emitting tequila-scented yawns, and regretting that last shot at Dirty Birds at 2AM. More than a handful will roll over in bed and ...
Why Was Toni Atkins Consulting for Developers Vying for Redevelopment Dollars After She Was Elected to State Assembly?
Why was State Assembly Majority WHIP Toni Atkins working for LeSar Development Consulting firm as the Senior Principal of Housing Policy and Planning even after she was elected to State Assembly? Toni was consulting with developers and helping them lobby to get these redevelopment tax dollars for their projects. So ...
Shell Game
Over a decade ago, I found myself stumbling around in downtown Tijuana with a cup of coffee in my hand. It was in the early morning, before nine o’clock, before most Tijuanenses were out and about in that area. The wife and me, well, we were having issues so I ...
