The Truth About Mexico!

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Conflicts and Resolutions

Every writing student knows that all the greats wrote every day, no matter how ill, hungover, or uninspired. Being bedridden helps, as does being stranded on a long sea voyage. Of course we all require a room of one’s own. Though some prefer the preciousness of writing private thoughts in the public space of coffee houses or at the bar; [...]

23Jan2009 | Jillian | 1 comment | Continued
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Sea Change: Our Big Night Out at Elio Al Mare

It is possible for one meal to change everything. Yesterday I didn’t believe that a mythical Italian restaurant could possibly exist in Progreso. I didn’t believe in much of anything. Today I am a serious devotee of Elio Al Mare and plan to tell everyone I know to seek it out and experience the best Italian food this side of [...]

22Jan2009 | Jillian | 6 comments | Continued
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Becoming 30 on the Mayan Riviera

It was actually twenty minutes past my birthday when the big surprise walked through the door. We arrived on a late bus to Cancun and then took a cab the 40 minutes to Playa. I was wrecked and cranky, having suffered many birthday injustices, including a terrible dye job that had rendered me a tabby [...]

10Nov2008 | Jillian | 3 comments | Continued
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A Connecticut Haunting or You Can’t Ghost Home Again*

I wonder if every theater in America has a ghost in the wings? This specter is an actor who was killed in a horrific stage accident. Or was it murder? In Clinton the suited man haunts stage left and is good luck for any production who feels his presence.
The Andrews Memorial Town Hall is a [...]

31Oct2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Our Part in the War on Poverty

That’s different than a war for poverty or a war on the impoverished, right? I think. I hope it is. Cause I don’t support those. We do what we can, in our own way, which up to this point has entailed sponsoring Tom, who worked outside the Korean deli on the corner of Court and [...]

15Oct2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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We Are Pioneers

Malcolm and I moved far away to build a better life. While we do have family they are scarce and scattered and most of those individuals do not perform traditional roles in our lives. That’s ok. We’re a family now, the two of us; I am in the process of becoming a Bedell officially and [...]

12Sep2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Softie

Colloquial: a person who appears gruff and or cynical but in truth is sensitive, bordering on saccharine. As in, “Mr Davies, our taciturn math teacher, proved to be an old softie when given a chance to hold the class puppy.”
There is a new baby in the family today and, as it turns out, new life [...]

9Sep2008 | Jillian | 1 comment | Continued
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Observation #6012

It smells like tater tots in here today.
Follow up half-conscious thought: I wish I had Social Studies this afternoon.

15May2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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When I Was Red

On or about Summer 1999 I was a Communist for a long time. To get a sense of what constituted a serious commitment of passionate activity, imagine a pie chart of my life at this age with 33% dedicated to reading; 33% dedicated to drinking; 33% dedicated to pondering/wandering/moping and 1% dedicated to considering [...]

1May2008 | Jillian | 5 comments | Continued
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Welcome to the Gringo House

Sometimes I feel a bit as if we are on display in our office. We’re not in here flinging poop and pleasuring ourselves; we’re just working. Sitting at our workstation, Malcolm at his big boy table and me at my trundle desk, we type, we grimace, we laugh ,we head-scratch, we wait under headphones and [...]

25Apr2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Baryshnikov’s Sister

When you were a kid there were probably many occasions when you were tasked to draw your dream house. I distinctly remember being in a sunny CCD classroom overlooking the lawn with the St Mary statue and sketching an ideal dwelling of grand proportion. I still don’t understand the relationship between Jesus and having a [...]

24Apr2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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“Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young”

Ah, 1996. It was the year of Renton’s monologue from Trainspotting, Sublime’s 40 oz to Freedom and Prozac Nation. I was a freshman in Boston trying to figure out who to love, what to study and how often to wash my Carhartt pants. My roommate and I shared a love of classic rock, Gilgamesh, Diet [...]

10Mar2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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