companion

I've wondered about which words would be good to use when it's conversationally natural to mention to Isaac why his mother isn't in his life. If he asks, for example. He knows who his dad is, so where's his mom? He very reasonably will wonder sometimes, so it might make sense to say something about it. It's also going to be natural to just point this out sometimes, even if I'm not asked, because it's a big part of the explanation of why he has to go back to his grandparents' house on Sundays. "If you're my dad, why aren't I living here?" he might wonder. So I thought for a while about what the right words would be, and last weekend I had a chance to try them out. When deciding on what to say, I figured obviously whatever I say has to be comprehensible, and I'm happy to report that I don't think this criterion will ever be difficult to satisfy. When I started having him at my apartment on weekends, I underestimated how much of wh...

About five or six months after my separation from Sabina, I started to face the fact that having a bunch of index cards scattered around in every room with notes about how upset I was just wasn't likely to be attractive to new romantic prospects that find their way into my apartment.  I mean, they weren't merely notes. A few of them were just notes in plain prose. I did that sometimes when I knew what I wanted to say but didn't know how to say it. More often though they were ideas that had been transformed into poetry, intended for use as lyrics, for songs I'd written about a breakup. Yeah, not great. But I wasn't about to pack them up yet either. The songs hadn't been made yet, which means I still had to record the vocals, and I think it's important to have the original notes in front of me when I do that. Also, by keeping them out, I'm consistently reminded that I have to finish them. The whole room cries out, "Your work's not done." I gu...