Camera Ready

The most comfortable part of being videotaped is reaching up and down your own shirt to attach a microphone, while a complete stranger watches you. There’s a real second-base awkwardness to this, at least for a woman. I have been videotaped in my classroom twice now. It’s great revenge on a person who used to […]

Let Not

I like to go to church late. Deep in my heart, I guess I like to go everywhere late, or I wouldn’t be late so often. The brilliant thing about going to church late is that no one can look at you like, What’s her problem? Or they can, but then you know that they […]

Coulda

The happiest day of my life was the day I was the filthiest and the cleanest tired. I woke up jittery on the floor of a Mexican church, and pulled on overalls. All day we nailed two-by-fours and I drank gallons of water without ever having to pee. In the desert, you don’t pee or […]

Fisherman

I almost stole a fish basket. I was fifteen when the family converged on the old farmhouse to divvy up its contents. My great-grandparents had a crackerbox of a house. The story was that someone found the house in a dry creek bed, and hitched it to some horses who pulled it out onto the […]