—THERE’S JUST ENOUGH OF YOU IN ME

 

…“One adult telling you that you’ll write a book one day is enough to change your life forever.” Daniela Scrima

 

…Aren’t we all self-absorbed to a degree?

 

…Sometimes there is no cause and effect, just effect.

 

…It’s like Santa Claus—it’s only real if you believe in it.

 

…Paying a person $750 million dollars to play baseball seems very wrong on a lot of different levels.

 

…“If this was all I ever got, it would be the best thing that had ever happened to me, and if this was all I ever got, I’d never stop wanting more of it.” Sally Milz

 

…If you can look the other way, well, I’m quite jealous.

 

…I don’t mind Christians. It’s the perfect ones that bug the fuck out of me.

 

…I really need to get around to seeing The Big Lebowski at some point.

 

…Confident people are super intriguing.

 

…People’s tattoos are also intriguing, for all sorts of reasons.

 

…It’s easy to envy people who never take anything personally.

 

…I’d like to stop overthinking things, beginning with friendships.

 

…An ad I recently saw: BASIC TEES REDEFINED FOR THE CONFIDENT MAN

What the hell does that mean? It’s a t-shirt.

 

…When it comes to aging, while looking at it from a macro viewpoint, it seems to me there are really just two options—bitch about it, or be grateful. 

 

…Who am I to talk?

 

…“The Population Bomb” came out in 1968 warning that the world would soon become so overpopulated there wouldn’t be enough food to feed everyone and that the bulk of the world would suffer severe starvation. Now the world is facing a dramatic population decline predicted to extend for several decades and beyond, maybe forever.

There are a lot of take-aways. I let you have your own.

 

…There’s something special about a stranger smiling at you as they pass by.

 

…How much do you think you’ve changed intellectually and emotionally in the last ten years? In a lot of respects, I’m not even the same person.

  

… “Well, I figured, a plumber is a plumber. You don’t have to be a great plumber to call yourself a plumber, if you are a plumber each day. But what the word poet meant to me when I was a kid, those faces in the little portholes of the Oscar Williams anthology that I carried around with me—those creatures, those beings, were so special, they are so special, they are kind of like angels in some way, whose power of speech extended over time, who were helping us long after they had gone, and delighting us. So I didn’t feel comfortable using that word for myself. But then I figured, that’s what I do, that’s what I do, so that’s what I’m going to call myself.”     

    --Sharon Olds 

 

…I know it sounds stupid, but I never realized how important joy was until the last few months.

 

…You know you’re desperate when you see someone reading, “Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope,” and you write the author’s name down. 

 

…Spotify is pretty amazing—all that music, right there, anytime.

 

…Do you ever get the feeling that there’s something going on that we don’t know about?

 

…Do you wanna fight? Is that what you want? Come on. Come on, you son of a bitch. I'll hit you so hard, I'll kill your whole family.

 

…I was recently told my writing contains “an air of quiet despair.” I guess that’s about right.

 

…We’re such a privileged country that you think the bad things that happen, and have happened elsewhere, can’t happen here. Until they do.

 

 …“I want everybody to see me as I am. Your voice cracks? OK, darlin’, you go right on and keep giving it what you’ve got left, and the audience ignores it and goes right along with you. I’ve found out the way to get myself through to people is just to unzip myself and let everything hang out.” Roberta Flack

 

…My longest Linkin Park to date: it took me nearly a month to pull Sara Bareilles.

 

…Even though it’s only a word game, it’s still a little freaky to play with someone whose screen name is DEATH.

 

…It’s funny how you can have a really bad pain that stays top of mind for a week, but when it goes away, you never think about it again, or even that it was ever there to begin with.

 

…Instead of talking to myself, I’ve started texting myself.

 

…Some people hear things, but I feel them—like that little scrittch-scrittch heartburn in my chest, even when I haven’t eaten anything.

 

…On the phone with a friend we were talking about celebrities who had recently died when my friend said, “While we’re on the topic, how’s your health these days?”

 

…“Try a little tenderness” is a pretty powerful lyric if you really think about it.

 

…Losing stuff sucks until you realize it’s just stuff.

 

…“I don’t want to know,” isn’t always a bad answer. 

 

…The world seems so bizarre anymore. This is a headline that came through on my phone yesterday--“Hamas has handed over the remains of four hostages, the last exchange in the first phase of the cease fire agreement.”

Remains? Hostages? First phase?

 

…I never thought of not eating as fasting. It sounds a lot healthier when you say it that way.

 

…“I think I’m better at using rage and disappointment to fuel my creativity. Happiness makes me uneasy.” Sally Milz

 

…Isn’t the goal to live with our demons, not expect them to go away?

 

…“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. The show goes on because it’s 11:30.” Lorne Michaels

 

…From FBK:

I love fish sticks *and* caviar. I love Toni Morrison *and Danielle Steel. I love Fast & Furious *and* Moonlight. I love Mr. Bean *and* your daddy, although he’s nowhere near intelligent as Mr. Bean.

 

…If you start to investigate what’s put into the food we eat, it’s pretty alarming.

 

…“Today is a good day to be alive” is a good reminder.

 

…It’s probably not a great sign if you give someone your book with an inscription and never hear a peep back.

 

…“Trauma sends you letters, without warning, for the rest of your life, usually disguised as something else.” Brenna Twohy

 

…“An editor, in rejecting a piece, said my writing showed "promise." Dude, I don't have that kind of time.” Howie Good

 

…Some days I give away and never get back.

 

…I’ve always found myself drawn to things that bleed some kind of emotion. 

 

…Entering a writing contest is either foolish or ballsy, or both, yet I keep doing it lately.

 

…“Just to be clear, I do lead a life of quiet desperation. I wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone who doesn’t, or anyone who isn’t filled with ambivalence, because I assume they’d be incredibly shallow.” Curtis Sittenfeld

 

…This is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard a parent say:

‘We remain paralyzed in thought and sorrow.’

 

…Expecting less is always the best option.

 

…Hey, it’s the weekend. I hope yours is all you want it to be.

 

…Nothin’s a lock, Boog. Nothin’s a lock.