A conversation with my mother

Sure there are lots of things to talk about, but instead, a phonecall from my mother:

Mom: So Pete figured out that he can jump over the fence and now he's roaming the neighborhood at will. And so, okay, last night I'm eating dinner, and oh, here comes Pete through the dog door and he has a giant deer bone in his mouth, which he proceeds to eat in its entirety on the living room rug.

Me: What do you mean he ate a deer bone in its entirety.

Mom: I mean that he sat there for twenty minutes on the rug until the entire thing was gone.

Me: Twenty minutes?

Mom: Yeah, twenty minutes.

Me: Why didn't you take it from him?

(A beat.)

Mom: I didn't even want to deal with that.

Me: Okay.

Mom: We ate our dinner at the table, and Pete ate a giant deer bone on the rug. That's what happened.

New member of the family

"I'm lying on the couch because I love you."

Or maybe, after last night:
"I attacked your other dog with my teeth because I love you."

How can you tell when you get to Hillsboro?

I'm back on the farm for a week or so, just off Longmoor Farm Lane, the most pot-hole-y road ever. "Longmoor Farm Lane"-- that's not bad. Rustic, maybe, but not bad. Especially compared to some of the other roads in the neighborhood:

"Locust Thicket Lane." Gross.

"Clatterbuck Lane."

"Aunt Mary's Lane."

"Ashbury Church Road." By the way, no, there isn't a church on that road.

"Little Dylan Lane."

"Allder School Road."

Yep, only in Hillsboro.

Another thing I'm under-qualified to talk about

Twittering the revolution in Iran

I've been spending every night this weekend addicted to Andrew Sullivan, TPM and the bananas Twitter feed you can look at above. I don't know enough about the history and situation in Iran to pretend to talk about it, but I'm addicted to the newsfeed coming in over the internet. Also because the US media is doing a shitpoor job covering it (CNN, wtf).

Also, this photo of a protester helping an injured riot policeman made me cry, I don't know:

punkplay

Please do yourself a favor and go see punkplay this weekend. It's the first show in Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks series and it's fantastic (and, in fact, go to all the shows in every Summerworks series, always. New rule). It's about two boys coming of age in the '80s and punk rock and Reagan and sex and friendship and figuring out who you are. And everyone is wearing roller skates the whole time, and, amazingly, that doesn't feel gimmicky at all. And the last monologue is beautiful.

It's a play I liked even more after I woke up the next day and thought about it again.

Love it

Spotted

Woman in heels walking twenty-five pound cat on three-foot-long leash around pool.

Back to Texas, Part II

I forgot how in Texas, bad weather means maybe an hour or so of partial clouds and the possibility of scattered thunderstorms tomorrow that never come.

Being back in Texas and, specifically, being back in Dallas on Saturday, is like a smack of nostalgia in the face. It smells different, and people look different, and there's just this vibe in the air. And there are the little things, like the bumpy texture of the walls in my dad's apartment that reminds me of my Grandma's old house in Denton and that is a different texture from the walls of my apartment in New York, or anywhere else. I don't know. Stuff like that.

Anyway, here's some trivia and observations about Texas (from Austin to Dallas) that might come in handy at some point for either of the two scripts I'm planning to set in Texas.

-- Gas prices are always about a buck lower than anywhere else because of the oil refineries in Houston.

-- There is only one natural lake in the state of Texas.

-- Flags? Everywhere. Specifically the state flag.

-- Shirtless men are also everywhere.

-- Austin is so casual, I have yet to see anyone dressed in anything nicer than jeans.

-- There's not so much an accent, at least not in the cities. Or maybe I just don't notice it? I'm notoriously bad at noticing accents after the first few minutes of talking to anyone. Let's see, Texans do say y'all. A lot. I remember when we left Dallas for good, I had to consciously wean myself off of "y'all." And that was not easy.

-- Everyone serves iced tea, and there are free refills of whatever drink you order, everywhere.

Back to Texas

So I'm going back to Texas (Austin, again, as per) and we're taking a sidetrip north to Dallas. For the first time in, oh, twelve years? Yikes. For the first twelve years of my life, I was a Texas girl (as much as anyone can really be a Texas girl when your parents are both militant atheists from New Jersey), and it's gonna be weird to go back.

But also, I have some research to do-- next play I want to write takes place in Mesquite, or somewhere like Mesquite. Also that play is about cults and a woman returning from a cult and maybe we'll swing through Waco, which is conveniently located directly between Austin and Dallas.

I'm excited to do a lot of traveling to new places this summer (albeit nowhere really exciting, like my friend Laura who is going to Cambodia. Aaa, I want to go to Cambodia!). But every time I go somewhere new, I get a script out of it, even if that script isn't necessarily set in wherever I've just been to. Although often it is, so.

I think when you travel, your eyes are more open. And your mind is kind of fuzzy and relaxed, like just before you fall asleep, and ideas can creep in more easily.

I love this ad

You gotta appreciate that Denny's understands its target audience. Stoned unicorns.