I teach online. And today, before I head out to do more queer work, I am reading a stack of essays from my students. Not really a stack. A virtual stack. I am thinking though, of how this conference, is also trying to define itself in a different type of virtual way. What makes a […]
I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you in Santa Nella, too? There there’s a pair of us-oh well! We publicized, you know. How weary to be a Queer Writer! In traffic, like a Frog Then think about one’s coming out And put it in a Blog!
Oh Lathrop, California! How I counted on you! There, just a dozen miles or so from Stockon, how I wanted you to be this magical place at the end of my trip north–past the 580 into a part of the 5 I drive upon so rarely it seems like intergalactic space. I did my best; […]
I am driving in a daze after Firebaugh. I am telling myself come on, girl, get yourself together. But I am not really together, to be honest. And so I miss the Santa Nella exit. You can also see the gap between this and the last Day Two recap. Sometimes existential thunder happens in the […]
Sometimes, a highway you know takes you somewhere you did not expect. I am playing the same CD to my favorite anime. I am riding this same stretch of road and thinking of the same issues I have had with her for years, and how it all exploded as I in a way I am […]
I’ve noticed, as I visit the major rest area towns along the highway, that they occur at very specific points: where one highway intersects another. One highway is not enough; at least two are needed for these towns to grow. Even as I travel north toward San Francisco, folks are going east or west to […]
So Bravo Farms is this tourist gift shop strip mall place just behind the gas stations in Kettleman City. At first glance it looks as if someone asked Jonah Hex to decorate Casa de Fruta. Rugged storefronts. A wooden walkway. A water tower, because you need one of those. Train stuff. A waterwheel. And a […]
Leaving Los Angeles is usually a fun thing to do, but usually that has been because I’ve had someone with me. Someplace to go. I’ve traveled to SF, read, then turned around and came home the same day. I’ve met friends. I came out as trans in San Francisco. I was taught how to verbalize […]