summertime puppy love

This is a true story
for my darling Willis

Upon my belly, puppy lies
breathing, twitching, happy sighs.
I softly stroke her fuzzy head
we're sprawled upon the hide-a-bed.

she kicks a paw toward the sheep
that she is herding in her sleep.
though burrs adorn her calloused paw
and haunches gummed with pine and straw
we lie upon my favorite quilt:
her slumber brings a welcomed dirt
from hours of wrestling in the sand
and sniffing out a fenceless land
and frolicking through the desert wide
of romps and tromps and life outside-

the pulsing of a life that's free
I feel her heart against my knee.
and dreaming of a belly scratch
she rolls upon her puppy back.
a soft embrace of dust and silt
we lie upon my favorite quilt.

Internet daters anonymous

I have a confession to make. Hello, my name is Juliana and I tried eharmony-dot-com. I had been thinking about it for several months. Decided to try it, changed my mind, changed my mind again, and then talked my grandchild-less mother into funding it for one month. I know a few people whose subscriptions resulted in marriage. So I satisfied my curiosity. The good news is: I've been documenting the whole process with audio journaling, so if nothing else, I'll get a good story out of the experience and maybe This American Life will give me a thousand dollars and publish it on the radio. Anyway, I'm only coming clean about this dirty little secret because I'm not planning to renew my subscription. I'm amazed at all the single men out there who are paying a fair amount of money so they can completely ignore compatible women as adorable as me.

Conversion

I work in a college admissions office and I read a high school girl's testimony today. The first paragraph started:

'"Do you want to go to hell where all the drunks and bad people go or do you want to go to Heaven and live with Jesus?" Those were the words of my kindergarten teacher, Miss Palm. She was giving he bible lesson for the day but it had scared me to death.'


All I can say is... Shame on you, Miss Palm!

TYG list

My bible study ThankYouGod list:

Mosaic (my church) and The Mayan (the salsa club where we meet)
A warm comfy bed
green grass in the back yard (the weeds are pretty too)
A stress free job
Liz
My parents who pray for me every day
Monkeys that swing and climb
fuzzy puppies
clothes that fit me
pancakes
Grandparents who pray fr me every day.
Friends who pray for me every week.
green paint
tylenol
Saturday mornings
fingernail polish