I am also on Tumblr and Twitter. I like them both. I am the same name at both of those. Or you can just search the person who is into Marlowe and AOS. That would be me. I am sad that so many people seem to be leaving LJ. The refrain of 'it was good for a while, nothing lasts forever,' makes me quite downcast.

But for long-form writing LJ is perfect for me. I hope to do more 'real' writing in the future. Please don't give up on me as I have been lazy/busy/sad. I do not want to disrupt the situation by looking for a new place to make a nest. And new people are still coming to LJ. I love to see new names, and read what new people have to say.

I enjoy reading here, and I like writing here, and that is good enough for me. So look for me here, if you wish.

Check this out, you guys. Pretty amazing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/06/octopuses-and-squids-can-rewrite-their-rna-is-that-why-theyre-so-smart/?utm_term=.4b0a18221cd4

Warm sunny quiet day here. My day off. I am putting aside all the things I don't want to think/worry about. Nothing I can do about them on the weekend anyway.

I have all the next 10 days off. My charity call center that I work at is staffed and owned by Orthodox Jews. I have Saturday off, therefore, and the whole long Pesach holiday. I will rest... I have been working 10 hour days for the last week.

I hope you guys don't think me disrespectful doing fund raising for religious charities in a religion not my own. I raise donations for ambulances and hungry kids. I can make a pretty voice on the phone and memorize a script. Phone sales I can do, not much else I can do is salable. I would rather raise money for hungry kids than sell overpriced things to the reluctant or gullible. My coworkers know of course that I am not Jewish at all.

Like any job, there are days when I am not enthused. But for the most part it is interesting. I get to talk to people all over the country, each phone call gives me a little slice of life, I can hear babies or dogs, I can speak to people 100 years old. For the most part everyone on the phone is kind, even when they realize I am calling to ask for money, even when they say no.

Today is opening day for Luna Park at Coney Island. From now until October the rides and the fireworks and the hot dogs will be in play. We live a block from the beach, a ten minute walk in the sand from the ferris wheel.When the wind is right I can hear the carnival music. You all should come visit!

Shifting Sands Challenge
Title: Toast and Foghorns
Author Eglantine_br
Rating G




Toast and Foghorns


“Mommy does it a different way, she uses the microwave.” There was no condemnation in the little voice, only a forward curiosity.

“She makes toast in the microwave?” I found this rather appalling but nobody ever could tell my sister anything.

( Read more...Collapse )

Shifting Sands Challenge
Title: Garnets and Sand
Author Eglantine
Word Count 400
Rating PG for violence and misery



Garnets and Sand



El Ferrol



They were not going to shoot him. ( Read more...Collapse )

It will probably be the last time. We have been doing it since she was 3, every spring. Her with the stickum and wires on her head, sitting in a hospital bed, plugged into a machine that watches her brain. The room is also rigged to record sound and vid. No privacy-- well hospitals don't offer that.

So her on the bed, moving up the years, from coloring books, to 'real books' to her kindle, her laptop, her never-without-it phone...

And me, in the reclining chair beside the bed. She is on a wire long enough to reach the toilet. She cannot go further. She is to sit still and be monitored for 30 hours or so. I am the one who gets snacks, who stays with her to ease the boring hours along. I am, at least this last time, the mom.

(I mean I know I will always be the mom, but next year she leaves peds. She will be expected to stay alone after that.)

I have spent hundreds of hours in hospitals with her-- after seizures, at appointments, and for tests. When it comes to medical settings she is a champ. By the time she was 6 or 8 she had a ranking system set up for the food in hospitals. (Most of it is bad, bring hot sauce...) By the time she was 5 she could stick out her arm for a needle and hold it steady and thank them when they were done. I don't know anyone tougher.

I can read nothing from the jagged scribbles of the EEG machine. It jumps when she yawns or chews, or speaks. Or listens. Last time she used it to entertain her friends-- she would speak or eat and they clustered around the machine giggling-- she got laughing and the squiggles went dark and dense. (This time we were trying to see if she could come off her meds and do it safely.Answer is no, meds for life, but they work at least. And I am not letting myself think about her outgrowing our insurance...)

So one last time to enjoy the moment. She is well. She has grown into a young woman. She is old enough to keep herself safe. That is what I prayed for in those hundreds of hours. This. This. Her eating fried chicken and doughnuts on a bed that costs as much as a car, me curled close on a vinyl recliner.One last time to sleep beside her, and listen to the beeps and quiet voices and the not-quiet, never quiet.

TV was having a marathon of Harry Potter movies. So I watched those other children grow up in accelerated time. I wonder how their mothers feel?