May 3, Houston: The big one -- the Inprint reading -- occurs at the Alley Theatre on Monday, May 3. Do not miss it or you'll be sorry. I'm not kidding -- I'm going to say the craziest, most intellectual yet hilarious stuff I can think of, and I'll be sharing the stage with the ultra sexy Oscar Casares, too.
June 24, Houston: I'm one of the peeps scheduled to read at Poison Pen, at Houston's famous Poison Girl bar. Besides me, everyone there will be ultra, *super* sexy. Come see me and drink!
June 26, Washington, DC: I'll be reading at the American Library Association conference. Come on down.
My other blog: Go read my the Houston Chronicle parenting blog (or my ChronMomBlog, as I like to call it) and make sure my kids won't resent me more than other kids resent their own parents.
Buy my new novel, Lone Star Legend. Already did? Well, buy a few more for your friends, then. :)
Sunday, May 03, 2009
like the ladies from Fleetwood MacWe went to the Fleetwood Mac concert here in Houston last night. It was good -- they're very good musicians. We were sad that Christine McVie didn't tour with them. But it was still good.
While sitting there watching Lindsey Buckingham tear it the hell up on his guitar, I remembered that I'd mentioned Ms. McVie and Stevie Nicks in my first book. I was talking about being a child and imagining myself a successful grown-up, and that picture, in my mind, involved looking like Stevie and/or Christine.
See, when I was a kid in the '70s, there were those two, and then there were Ann and Nancy Wilson, of the band Heart*.
That was it, for me. Those were the four women who were allowed to be in rock bands, because they were so bad-ass that they apparently got to bend the men-only rule. And they were*, therefore, my role models. I could say my goddesses or my muses or whatever, but really, only Ann Wilson reached those proportions in my mind. Ann Wilson was, to me, awesomeness personified. I was singing "Magic Man" in the back seat of my parent's car, back when I was three or four I guess because I remember my mom still being there and encouraging me -- she liked that song a lot, too.
I remember staring at the cover of my dad's Dreamboat Annie album whenever he let me, reflecting on the perfection of the Misses Wilson on it, believing that they were exactly how women were supposed to look.
I remember pulling out the inner album sleeve and staring at the beautiful, beautiful guitarist in the band with them (Roger? Steve? can't remember who I thought was so handsome) and imagining that he must be in love with either Ann or Nancy, or both. And thinking that they probably kissed him sometimes. Both of them.
(Way later, I read that I'd guessed right.)
I remember, also, playing my dad's Tusk and Rumors cassette tapes. Listening to Lindsey Buckingham sing "won't you lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff" and inferring that he was probably singing either to Stevie or to Christine, and that "do my stuff" undoubtedly meant kissing.
I remember wondering if I'd ever sing and play the guitar, like my mom used to, and if a handsome guitar player would ever want to kiss me. :)
So... I sat in the Toyota Center with hundreds of other people -- all chilled out and seated, mercifully, because we're all getting too old to jump around -- and I thought about this stuff. And I knew that the people behind me were more likely remembering actual kissing that they themselves performed to those cassette tapes, since they were a little older. Same with the people in front of us. Lindsey sang that song, and three women near by jumped up and screamed and danced like they must have danced as teenagers, and I knew that those words about the tall grass had had a striking effect on them, too. In a way I felt embarrassed that when the band announced a song name, I usually didn't know which song they meant until they started playing, because I was so young back then and I just listened to the tapes all the way through, without picking favorites or even looking at their titles, like you do when it's an album you've always known and loved. But then I relaxed and realized it was okay not to know the song names.
I sat there looking all around at the hundreds of people, knowing that they all had special memories that went with these songs. Lindsey and Stevie stood on stage and told us their own memories, too. And it was -- you know -- magical and stuff.
* When I say Heart, I mean, of course, Heart in the '70s. Not in the '80s. I pretend that '80s Heart didn't exist, or was a different band with the same name. Actually, same goes for Fleetwood Mac, too. Don't tell my Gen Y fiance that I said that, though.
My favorite song by Fleetwood Mac, as played by a young man on YouTube with a really nice voice.
The kissing-in-the-grass song, with Lindsey B's remembrance intro.
Stevie on the same tour, week before we saw her, wearing the same gold shawl for "Gold Dust Woman," which made our friend June suggest that I find one for my wedding. (I look better in silver.)
Labels: getting older, music, reminiscing
7:50 PM # (4) commentsMonday, April 13, 2009
Stuck Inside a Starbucks with the Colored Pencil BluesIf a copyeditor was copyediting this blog entry, she'd probably read that title and then attach a little Post-It that said, "Did you mean 'blue colored pencil'? Please clarify." You know why? Because I'm old, and therefore all my references are
It's a Bob Dylan reference, people.
It's a Douglas Adams reference, people.
It's a Road Warrior reference, people.
It's an Eddie Murphy 1980s stand-up routine reference, people.
What if I say it's a Rock Band reference? From the video game? That one song you have to download for $1.99, that no one downloads or else no one plays because it goes on and on and on and it's hard to stick the vocal notes and the guitar is too, too repetitive?
Don't mind me. I'm just old. Someone else who's old is shaking his head, saying, "But those aren't even reference-worthy pop culture relics, Gwen."
Well, whatever.
That was going to be a story about going through a lot of trouble to arrange some time alone to go over my latest manuscript's copy edits... going through trouble to find a suitable coffee shop in which to do that in before settling on a Starbucks that wasn't even mine... stopping on the way for Special Writer Supplies (Tax Deductible)... trying the Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte despite trepidation; finding it rather good; worrying then about its calorie count... and then, after all that, opening my copyedited ms and finding out that I was only supposed to write on it with colored pencil, not with Uniball gel pens or Pilot gel pens or any of the other gel pens I've been buying and intending to write off on my taxes.
So. Yeah.
the wedding
Yes, I'm going to post a few pictures. If they come out flattering enough. If I don't have cake crumbs all over my dress. For those who asked. Thanks for caring, you guys. :)
The plans are coming together as well as I could've hoped. Now Dat's parents are making all the food, themselves. They called Dat last week and said, "You know we're coming to the wedding, right? We told you that, right?"
Dat said, "Oh, sure. Good."
Dat's dad did that thing that he does... that thing when he cares, but doesn't want to be the cheesy, spoiling parent who shows that he cares. He asked if we were catering, and Dat said we were of course catering Asian food. Dat's dad goes, "Are you getting rice from Lucky Restaurant*?"
We weren't, but before Dat could say that, his dad gets all faux-upset and goes, "Don't get rice from them! Their rice isn't good! Even I could make better rice than them! Don't waste your money! You always waste too much money! Let me just make the rice for you!"
Dat said, "Okay, Dad."
Then his dad was like, "What else are you ordering from Lucky Restaurant*? Don't order egg rolls. Their egg rolls aren't good. Stop wasting money. Your mother's going to have to make the egg rolls for you. No, don't argue with me, son. You've got to stop this habit of wasting money on bad egg rolls, and we're going to teach you that lesson by making the egg rolls and the rice, and whatever else you were planning on getting from Lucky Restaurant* for your wedding. Also, I should probably make my special lobster noodles, because you're such a bad, spoiled, money-wasting son."
Dat said, "Thank you, Dad. Gwen loves your special lobster noodles."
Dat's dad went, "Hrmph. Well. I'm just trying to save you from wasting money, eating bad food, and throwing your life away."
His dad's routine would have had more striking effect if Dat's mom hadn't been in the background all along, calling excitedly, "Tell him I'm gonna make my coconut cake! Tell him! Have you told him yet?"
I know y'all realize that this is good news to me. But do you realize why? Because Dat's parents are retired restaurant owners (of course), and they can cook like no tomorrow.
* I'm using a pseudonym for the restaurant because their food isn't bad. It's good, and the owners are super nice. But you understand that Dat's dad had to pretend their food was bad in order to offer his gift without looking like he was fishing for gratitude.
still talking about the wedding
I found my dress, finally. It was at Talbot's, waiting for me all spring.
I would link y'all to a picture of it, but I don't want to because the catalog picture on their web site looks absolutely nothing like the dress does in real life. See, it's one of those MadMen-inspired fit-and-flare numbers, but they put it on a typically slender model, so the skirt is all sadly pleated around her hips, instead of flowing outward like it's supposed to be. Also, that dress was made for a big ol' chest, and the model doesn't suffer from one. So you can't see the dress's potential, so there's no use linking.
But I will tell y'all that it's white with peach flowers and green leaves. You have to imagine the peach flowers, obviously.
I will also tell y'all that, while I was there, I tried on a similar dress with blue roses, and it was super, duper cute, but not garden-party enough for my idea of the wedding dress. So I put it back on the rack. Then I went to the web site and saw that Talbots hadn't done that dress photographic justice, either. Then, later, I saw a picture of Michelle Obama wearing that dress. And I'm a little annoyed with her, because I saw it first. But that's okay. It looked nice on her, too. Not as nice as it looked on me, but.... No, just kidding. Just kidding, Mrs. Obama.
you would think I'd never had a wedding before or something
We found a cake lady right near my neighborhood, and she made us sample cupcakes and they tasted nice.
We found a beautiful yet suitably informal design for our invitation, and my brother-in-law-to-be is printing them up for us. (Not my dentist b-i-l... the printer one.)
And....
It's past eleven p.m.!
It's time for me to go to sleep so I can wake up and go back to work tomorrow.
No sighing. No whining. No asking for extra glasses of water, Gwen. Just go to bed.
More later, then. Always more later. Good night.
Labels: getting older, wedding stuff
10:34 PM # (14) commentsTuesday, March 24, 2009
Since my fiance and I started carpooling to work, I pushed my 8-hour work day back an hour, so that it now coincides with the busiest part of the morning commute, and also with our HOV lane’s 3 Rider Rule. For a certain portion of the morning, you have to have 3 people in the vehicle in order to get into the High Occupancy Vehicle lane. Therefore, even though we’re carpooling, we still have to pick up a stranger from the Slug Line each morning in order to make it to work in less than 90 minutes.
The Slug Line forms at the park ‘n’ ride bus stop. The bus at that stop goes into downtown on Smith Street. It goes all the way down Smith, then turns around and comes back to the park ‘n’ ride. The Slug Line is formed by people who don’t want to ride the bus – who stand in line and wait for drivers who need extra riders to meet the HOV requirements. See how it works? See the mutually beneficial symbiotic parasite relationship that’s sprung up?
We don’t work downtown. We work near downtown. So we pick up a stranger, haul them downtown, then turn around and hurry back out west, to our workplace in Houston’s beautiful Montrose.
If we drop off our passenger on Smith Street, we can easily make it to our workplace in time to enjoy breakfast at its cafeteria. If, however, we drop off our passenger anywhere past Smith, we fall into a time warp whereby each red light adds an exponential amount of minutes to our drive, and then we get to work late and can’t eat breakfast, and then we’re hungry, cranky, and sad. You see? Every minute counts on this morning commute, for us.
Some slug line drivers will take riders wherever they want to go downtown. I used to do that, before I started carpooling with my fiance. But some drivers don’t. Some drivers say “Bus route only.” Smith Street only, they mean. So we decided to start doing that, too. Before a rider gets into our car, we roll down the window and say, “We’re only going down Smith.”
Before I say anything else, let me say that this is America, and I was born here, and I believe that we all have the unalienable right to pursue happiness. If it makes you happy to wait in line at the bus stop for a free ride that’s going to take you directly to your place of work, like a hired chaffeur, that’s totally cool with me. I support your right to do that. Rock on.
You should, in turn, support my right to offer strangers rides to Smith Street only. Or to Milam only. Or to the Sam Houston Tollway, or to the moon, or to whatever point I choose. If you don’t want to accept a free ride from me, that’s fine. But don’t argue with me about it. When I say, “We’re going down Smith only,” don’t stand there and say, “I’m just going a few blocks away, to Fannin and Dallas. Why can’t you go to Fannin? It’s only going to take you a few minutes longer. Where are you trying to go?”
It’s none of your business where I’m “trying to go,” or why I might need the few minutes that dropping you off on Smith would save me. Step away from my car so that the next person in line can get into it. Wait for the next driver to come along, and see if she wants to play chaffeur.
When I very politely tell you, before you get into my car, “We’re doing the bus route only,” don’t stand there in the way and tell me, “What? Why? I don’t see what difference it makes.”
Yes, that’s right. You don’t see what difference it makes. And I don’t have to explain it to you. Just like I don’t see what difference it makes if I drop you off on Smith and you have to walk a block or two, the way you’d be obligated to do if you were riding the bus. I don’t think walking a block or two is going to kill you. And I wonder, if you can’t walk a block or two, why you don’t drive yourself to work, instead of putting yourself at the mercy of strangers on a daily basis. But I wouldn’t block traffic to tell you that, and I wouldn’t ask you to explain it to me. Especially when there’s a whole line of people behind you who understand the social contract of the slug line and who exhibit manners and common decency.
Most people in the slug line are perfectly polite. But some of them are so bizarrely entitled and rude. It would be funny to me, if it weren’t so early in the morning.
I don’t want to go on and on about bad behavior on the carpool. (Well, I do, but I won’t.) I’ll just say that, if you get into my car and I turn the air conditioning too high, it’s probably in a vain attempt to blow your cologne cloud out of my face.
Also: If you’re a blonde woman who lost a pair of glasses two months ago, or if you’re someone else who lost a pink mitten three months ago, email me. You might have left them in our car.
Weddings are like tumors.
Because they grow, you see. No matter how small you think you can keep it, it grows. But this one’s a benign tumor, so far, and I believe we’re strong enough to keep it that way.
We realized that Harris County doesn’t do real courthouse weddings. You pay for the judge’s or JP’s time, and it costs the same whether y’all meet at the courthouse or he drives to the location of your choosing. So we’re having Judge Yeoman come out to the house in the evening, right before our
The cake-and-champagne has become a dinner. Dat looked it up in his list of Cultural Heritage Statutes and realized that he’d been contractually obligated, at birth, to serve catered fried rice at any wedding in which he might eventually become entangled. So we’re doing that. (I love Asian parties because, along with the fried rice and egg rolls, they always have goi, which is vinegar-y salad with shrimp and peanuts. So we’re having that, too, of course.)
I’m relieved, because I felt a little uncomfortable about having a party and not serving a meal (Chicano Cultural Statute, Clause 57.03), and I was already planning to sneak in a brisket (Clause 57.92) next to the wedding cake… and now I can put the brisket on a nice plate, right next to the fried rice, and it’ll be beautiful.
You can’t have a dinner without extra seating, and you can’t have extra seating without building a gazebo in the back yard, and you can’t build back yard structures with remodeling the bathroom, first, and you can’t go through the trouble of remodeling if you aren’t going to wear a nicer dress than you’d initially planned. So you may as well have a photographer or three, and printed invitations.
And you can’t have relatives without opinions, and they can’t show up empty handed. So someone’s bringing flowers, and someone’s bringing lights to string through the trees, and someone’s bringing special crunk champagne flutes with our initials engraved in emeralds or something. And (more than one) someone has volunteered to do our family planning for us and tell us when we should have babies, and how many babies we should have, and what they should look like, and what we should name them. But that comes later… we told them to wait to the day after the wedding for that, if possible.
And… let me say right here, right now that I’m sorry that we can’t invite everyone we know. We wish we could, but we can’t. This was supposed to be a quick courthouse wedding because we couldn’t justify the expense of a lavish 300-guest fantasy wedding. But weddings are like tumors, so it’s gone from a practical elopement to a tiny version – a 1/10 scale model – of a real wedding. But our house is pretty small, as is our budget… so please understand that, and don’t be upset if you haven’t been invited. It wasn’t because we didn’t wish we could see you there. We wanted to invite you, but we had to invite our immediate family, first. We wanted to invite everyone we know, but there was literally no room.
art, life
Now, between books (assuming I write another book soon), I’m going through a mid-life assessment. Trying to assess where I am and decide where I want to go.
Every time I’m between books, I think up a lot of crazy ideas. But now that I’m in my mid-40s (i.e., 37), the crazy ideas seem not only more plausible, but almost obligatory. Like: “Do I want to spend the rest of my life [x thing]? No.” Like, “If I have to spend the rest of my life [x thing], shouldn’t I at least [y and z things]? Yes.”
I’m sure y’all know what I mean. Don’t you go through the same phases? Aren’t we all getting older, but also smarter and more efficient and better at making ourselves happy?
Hope so.
Labels: getting older, hating, Houston, venting, wedding stuff, writing
6:07 AM # (8) comments
