TwitBook

[Bmichael]

...The Ranch's answer to you -know - what - with no rules.

Go ahead...tell us what you're having for dinner - we can't wait! Got a cute pic of kitty peeking out of a paper bag? Post it! We live for that stuff!

Math addict? How about a refresher on the Pythagorean Theorem?

Like macaroni and cheese? Tell us why!

So even if you're not a writer or a poet (yet), there's still plenty of fun things to do at the Armadillo!

Oh baby, oh baby!

[Bmichael]

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with us…er…I mean those kind of people.

[Marilyn]

I have no comment on the clothing issue, but will comment on working with creative types. When I got married and moved to Joisey, I sent my new contact info to 3 (count 'em, 3) creative directors at my old employer, on the off chance that they might ask me back for a freelance gig.

Last week I got an email from my brother in Texas, informing me that a "Jen" from B of A's temp agency had contacted him trying to locate me to offer me a freelance position back in the ad agency. She'd tried all my old contact info (disconnected phone, etc), then went into my emergency contact info. First call was to my mother's old disconnected phone in Florida, second was to Pat in Texas.

Did any if the three creative directors think to give the temp agency my new phone number? Nooooooooooooooooooo......

On the other hand, it's work! And $$$$$$$$$$.

[Westerly_2]

Wow, nobody knows what they're doing(except you). Duh!

I have a large puppy who likes to eat pears. They drop frpm the tree and she picks them up and may deposit them on the rug to eat them. Some of these pears are fresher than others, and sometimes I don't find them right away.

I checked into a pet store the other day with pedigree prices - rawhide chews for...like... $17.99.

[Bmichael]

Saw an interesting book title today...

"Write Good or Die", edited by Scott Nicholson.

[Carol T]

I was googling a former lover, 26 years my senior, and came across a death notice which I believe is his.  He died in 2009.  The notice was very brief -- birth and death dates and town where he lived when he died.  He was 87.

We were engaged at one time.  He was divorced, and after I left him he went on to marry and divorce another woman.  He was a schlemiel and a schlimazel, which is why I never married him, but we were connected, and I feel odd that he's been dead for three years and I didn't know.

[Westerly_2]

That is an odd feeling. I was surprise to hear about the death of someone I hada crush on - we were never lovers - in 1977 - when he would have been but 29. I heard about this only last year, and all the time thinking of him as laughing and jaunty. I knew he had health issues, but didn't think he'd get carried off so damn soon.

[Westerly_2]

Here is something that made me smile today. I had an occassion to visit the national cemetery in Dixon, CA. Row on row of almost identical marble stones, none more grand than anothers. We visited our person, and wandered a bit more. It was a nice day. I spotted what seemed like trash at the base of one of the stones, a beer can. Oh, dear, I thought to myself; how careless. I nudged the can with my toe - close to the stone it was- and, it was not an empty can at all. It was a full can of coors light layed exactly parallel to the stone - deliberatley, it would seem.Ha! Some people leave flowers. Others prefer a refreshing can of suds. Cheers. 

[Carol T]

There you go -- I'd prefer beer to flowers myself, at least on a nice summer's day.

[Bmichael]

“We got married in a fever…

Hotter than a pepper sprout…”

And four years later we got unmarried – no drama, no problem. Amicable, even.

Thirty years later, I wondered how she was.

“You haven’t heard?”

“No.”

“She died.”

“Aww…sorry to hear that. Too bad.”

“Yeah. She was murdered.”

“Huh?”

(true story)

[Marilyn]

My story? Not so dramatic. I'd had a not-quite-fling with a boss, a creative director ... even wrote about it in the old TWG. Then stumbled across his obituary ... he'd been a very prominent guy in Philly advertising, so warranted a big picture and complete story of his life. Yes, a strange feeling and a "what if" moment!

[Carol T]

I think the reason that it hit me was that there is a certain amount of guilt on my part about dumping him.  He truly loved me, but no one else in our lives, including me, was happy about the relationship.  Some might say I used him.  Although that's not financially true, it was probably emotionally true.

He called me a few years ago, and I remember thinking then that perhaps he was dying and was reaching out one last time.  That's how I found out he'd been married and divorced again.

[Westerly_2]

brave of you to talk about the using, not sparing yourself. We all do it though - see a use for a thing or a person and carry through. You survive that way. The reaching out one last time may have been productiveor just a disappointment. Things end as they end, with no great writer shaping the last sentence. So no guilt need be assumed.We all do it though.