Conceit to Make Mrs. Lewis Laugh

Another trip to InfernoMart Good, penitent I, I try faithfully to attend my Sunday morning menu-making, grocery list generating, best-intentioned ritual — only demonic forces, then, remain as a plausible explanation of how at the unholy hour of 5:15 pm I find my minivan drawn into a line of cars oozing through the grocery store parking lot, desperate for a parking space that won’t require me to drag a two-year-old forcibly by the wrist five hundred meters past puddles and irresistible shiny things lying on the ground — oh, the magic of broken beer bottles! And I look around at the other zombie mom shoppers, their children surreptitiously pinching each other or outright throwing themselves on the ground in front of my shopping cart, and...

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Posted by Mara Collins on Nov 7, 2006 | 2 comments

I don’t get it

I love my art supplies… but what sort of self-esteem issues must you have if you feel you need a stencil to doodle? This is, no doubt, intended for people whose parents bought them too many coloring books as children.

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Posted by Mara Collins on Nov 3, 2006 | 1 comment

Atmospheric

Is there beauty in loss? This week, my life it had been a film, would be one of those artful atmospheric things, lots of shadows and sepia tones and big clouds and a soundtrack that would be this Glassian single plaintive line over a low rumble. I got to parent alone while the other parent in the house flew to Boston for a conference — he was gone the week before and will be gone again next week, which is manageable, the kids help with everything from taking out trash and making their own lunches to reading to each other and helping each other with homework, but it still requires management skills on my part that are just out of reach because I sleep badly, having a hard time dragging myself to bed and then waking up wide awake with every creak in our old...

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Posted by Mara Collins on Nov 3, 2006 | 2 comments