curi·ous {Old French curios} Drawn to investigate, prick up the ears, ponder for the sake of pondering. Enticed by mysteriously labeled bottles.
vo·luptu·ary {Late Latin volupturius} A lass devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. An unabashed epicurean, hedonist, libertine, sensualist, lotus-eater.
We celebrated my Grandpa Boone’s 85th birthday, this was what brought us to the states in the first place, a big ol’ shindig with all the family there. I made a book for him, of his life and memories of all the guests.
We drove my mom’s new convertible hardtop around the old freeways and [...]
It was pitch-perfect, and though it was offhand, it was mean. Or maybe especially because it was offhand. My mom, Karen, and I were going through box one of fifteen that we had wrangled from her daunting storage space, boxes full of photographs, some of which (okay, 750) would be scanned and edited into an [...]
Driving the freeways of LA I am struck by how much it can seem like an 8mm home movie that’s been tucked away in a shoebox since 1924. The light, the washed out colors, the dry, unfurling landscapes, the industry, the red thread of…promise? possibility? Well no, it in part feels over, a dream unrealized, [...]
The Raymond Chandler part of downtown LA with gorgeous old aqueducts.
Already the goodbyes have begun. On the Sunday apres we meet the San Fran kids for brunch in Echo Park before they drive back up the coast. We stand on the corner of Sunset and Effie, at what must be the longest light in history. [...]
It climbed up my purple suede ankle-strap shoe, up my Cuban-heeled seamed stockinged leg, and up the hem of my five-layer green silk dress. I was just fascinated right up to that point, but it was clearly on a mission to climb all of me, right to my heart, and that was more than I [...]
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The six days in Los Angeles were gorgeous.
My mom, Karen, lent us her cottage in Laguna Beach and when we arrived we discovered it tricked out in every way you can imagine: French press bought especially for Alfonso, fancy soap, candles, wine, linen sheets, snacks for days. It was a little [...]
“Goths are not born, they are made.” my dear friend Michelle says as we stand on the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvds. We have just been to the $5 Sunday matinée at the Vista, a refurbished Egypt-Deco theater from the 1920s that to me is so very Hollywood-of-my-childhood, tho technically it’s in Los Feliz. [...]
I grate the parmesan cheese in a tall snowy pile and cry. I stop, I make noises, I lean against the window, the glass cold, tears sting the raw skin around my eyes. I breathe.
Xie sits on the kitchen floor watching me. I arrange piles of hot bacon, turkey and the cheese on a [...]
For years I named my shoes. I grew up in Hollywood, where shoes and hair are everything, so from the time I was old enough to do anything about it, I’ve never had fewer than 30 pairs.
The naming didn’t start until college–I stacked boxes to the top of my closet, inscribed with the names [...]
Dream Oct 5th 06 am:
I am pregnant. Not with a child, but the book.
I am heading to the hospital to deliver, it’s kind of an airport/hospital/movie theater.
I am meeting my mom here. Wandering down the busy corridor
I realize I am about to go through labor, one of the most painful things a person can do [...]