Hi there

Oct 09, 07 | 4:00 pm

I've been meaning to do this for a long time. Come back. I'm not really sure how, I have fallen out of the habit of writing online. So I'm just going to force myself to spit out a few paragraphs a day until it comes back. I also want to put my old design back up. No more content management systems, no RSS feed, no comments, no fancy bells and whistles. Just me, a keyboard, and maybe some bold tags if I'm feeling kicky.

If I wait until I have the site fixed I'll never get started, so just bear with me for awhile.

So, hi. Again.

I live in Seattle now. I tried to move away over the summer, back to the east coast. But I got caught in the summer housing slump and by the time I got a solid offer (71 days later!), I no longer wanted to leave. I have friends here, and a life I like, and a job, and I am more safely insulated from my family's adoring dysfunction.

So, Seattle. I so do not fit in here, but I think perhaps nobody does. I am still slightly out of step with everything around me, a peculiar mix of old-fashioned and brazen that offends Seattle-ites on sight. I'm a fur-wearing male chauvinist in city of tree-hugging feminists. I've almost become more offensive in self-defense. I used to love to wear fur to the Safeway at the top of Queen Anne Hill. Women would actually hiss at me. Seattle-ites don't take well to cutting up odious little animals for the sake of vanity. Pity, that.

I once tried on the mink coat for Skye. It had been in storage at the house on Long Island, and I brought it back to Seattle with me after a Bas Mitzvah. It's a 3/4-length ranch mink swing coat with a high collar that sort of frames my face.

Skye was a total environmentalist but was completely disinterested in the fur issue. His cause was clearcutting. I never saw a clear cut forest until I loved Skye. They are a horror, even to me, and I frankly don't give a shit about the environment.

I wandered idly into the second bedroom, pulled the coat from its lined-muslin bag, and put it on over my naked body. I flipped up the collar and walked back into the bedroom. I said nothing until Skye looked up. He looked startled. "That's surprisingly hot," he said.

And Seattle winters are tough. It's funny, I thought Seattle's weather wouldn't really be a problem because I've always loved the rain. I'm the girl (well, now the woman) who would paste herself to a rooftop to ride out a category four hurricane. What I didn't understand about Seattle is that it isn't really the rain that's the problem, it's the darkness.

I have to think more about what I love about Seattle, other than "It's 3000 miles from home."

Just realizing upon seeing the date that today is mine & Robin's anniversary.

Oh please do come back! I read your original site when I was still in high school and I'm somewhat grown up now, I absolutely adored your writing. I've been hoping maybe I'd hear that you published a book! Anyhow, please keep writing! :)