—REMEMBERING YOU, STANDING QUIET IN THE RAIN, AS I RAN TO YOUR HEART TO BE NEAR

  

…I’m trusting you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with people you love. I sure hope so. And also, I’m grateful that you’re here.

 

…If you can’t find me, it means I’m off the page, which isn’t a good sign.

 

…Some people break themselves almost every day.

 

…Sometimes trying to save a friend feels a lot like cleaving off your own skin with a dull butter knife, one bloody layer at a time.

 

…It’s easy to feel relaxed when you’re dead and don’t know it.

 

…I wish I could hold a grudge the way the moon does, but what good would that do?

 

…Today every tree looks like a felon, out on parole and agitated.

 

…Last night I could hear every coyote howling for a ransom.

 

…There’s always too much to hold in.

 

…I wonder if insanity is hereditary. It would make a lot of sense.

 

…What I need to do is stop falling through trap doors and into quicksand.

 

…Right now, my pulse could use a second opinion.

 

…It’s something else when the air tastes untrustworthy.

 

…My sixth book is finally going to have a birthday soon. 

I wonder if anyone will read it. 

I’ve been excerpting a few lines here and there on this post, so you don’t need to call or text me with your concerns about my state of mind. 

Unobjectively, I think the manuscript is awfully good. It might just be my best yet.

 

…Just so you know, this has nothing to do with forensics.

 

…Just so you know, this is all coming on a Monday, when I have nothing, and too much, to say.

 

…I’m going to let Friday off the hook one more week, then bang!

 

…If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?

(It’s corny AF, but I always thought that was a really witty lyric.)

 

…I have absolutely no confidence in my insecurities, which makes me wonder--WTF?

 

…Does the air where you are ever feel like a straight-jacket? No? Then, lucky you.

 

…Do you ever wonder how often the world looks lopsided, or is it just me?

 

…I keep expecting these walls to run or speak or convulse, but, what a shocker, they never do.

 

…There is no real way to heal water.

 

…Sometimes everything means what it doesn’t.

 

…It’s the thoughts that turn your organs to foam that count.

 

…Even the shiniest apple has a pouch of cyanide in its shirt pocket. So be careful what you eat.

 

…What the prophets never tell you is that sometimes there’s not a correct answer.

 

…Do people ever claim you’re good at engaging them, but not forthcoming yourself?

 

...I just want to know: Isn’t it appropriate, and okay, to feel bitter sometimes?

 

…Grace might be on our side after all.

 

…Sometimes the best way to torture yourself is to avoid suicide.

 

...If you look too wounded to be alone, you shouldn’t be.

 

…When you’re as shaky as this, every day feels like another earthquake, and, sadly, it’s normal as hell.

 

…It’s something, to forget what you just forgot.

 

…The things you find in a handbag can tell so many stories. 

 

…Stories, of course, may or may not be true.

 

…The weather is so dull here, it can’t even give me a clue about what’s going on.

 

…Where’s Confucius when you need him?

 

…If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

 

...I don’t want a hug when a gin will do.

 

…It’s odd how long a year can seem.

 

…It doesn’t matter how beautiful the seasons are if no one notices them.

 

…Another story? Who doesn’t want to hear another story?

 

…The cold is brutal and honest, an endless freeze.

 

…People always say, a slap across the face, but it’s really the slap on the face you remember. 

 

…When is the last time you received a compliment and actually believed what you were told?

 

…How did that make you feel?

 

…In the scheme of things, how important is laughter to you?

 

…Have you ever sabotaged your success for no apparent reason?

 

…You would have laughed so hard at me yesterday. I know I did.

 

…The recipe for success is luck + people you know + plus uncontaminated pay.

 

…I wonder…

 

…I wonder if I could get arrested for what I write here.

 

…Give me some grace, okay?

 

…What I’m saying is (…)

 

…When the sun goes down at 4:28, it changes things.

 

…Just keep moving.

 

...I watched the beaver swim the length of the lake yesterday, which I always take to be a good luck omen. But it must have been a short man in wetsuit instead.

 

…I know I’m many things. One of them might be an enabler, but I don’t know how to shake myself out of it.

 

…Watch “Lessons in Chemistry” if you can. Watch “The Golden Girls” when you feel golden, which I hope you do often.

 

…I might raise a flag one day, then shove it up someone’s

 ass.

 

…Isn’t love love? Are there really degrees?

 

…I know I need to get an attitude change. That’s pretty obvious.

 

…“Take a peek, Patterson.”

 

…I am deeply superstitious, which can only mean one thing, but which thing is it?

 

…I got a degree in Poli-Sci and never saw a stitch of real law. Thank God for that.

 

…Thank God for this hangover.

 

…Thank God I still believe in you. Pretty sure I always will.