In our old neighborhood, which was near a school and a large shopping center and far from the coyote-filled hills where I live now, we had a pretty decent population of feral cats. They were cute, and I enjoyed having them around–there was one, a very pretty tri-color, that I named “Ardi” (short for Bacardi) and took pictures of through the screen door as he lounged in the late afternoon…
For almost a year in the mid-90s, my partner Drea and I lived in Portland, Oregon. It’s an amazing city. We arrived there after a month long cross country odyssey in a VW camper with our pet rat, Felix. We immediately fell in love with Portland and decided to stay. We quickly found the perfect apartment. It was huge, with beautiful wood floors, lots of windows, a great kitchen and…
I live in a gated community, a place where the homeowners association frets over whether our mailboxes are as nice as the mailboxes in the community on the other side of the preserve. A place where we have standards about how long one’s Halloween decorations may be left out in public (one week) and how tall one’s grass is officially sanctioned to grow. (1 1/2 inches). I am a woman…
We lived in the Washington, DC, area for many years. And while there was plenty to love about the region, one thing that was sorely lacking in the anonymity of suburbia was a sense of community. We yearned for real neighbors. Not that we didn’t have them. With the density of building that goes on in the sprawling metro area, we had plenty of people in very close proximity to…
I’m posting off-topic. Mostly because the whole growing up thing seems to have skipped me. I think I should probably be arrested. And you can’t arrest me without arresting my husband, because he’s every bit as guilty. We have this twisted little obsession. We’re in love with a house nearby and every evening, now matter which way we head; we bend our power walk in the direction of this place…
