Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: May 2023

  • Dialog with Neighbor Girl

    On the afternoon of the opera, I was adjusting the Wanna wig. I was working with the wig on the wig form and created a carefully artless Elvis-Presley-Michael-Jackson spit-curl by my right eyebrow. I carried it to the bathroom, plunked it on my head, and was evaluating if it was too precious when I had…

  • Opera Review: Tosca

    Yet another opera about non-consensual sex. Unfortunately, this meant I found myself saying things like, “My favorite aria was the one in the church during the prayer, and when Scarpia sings about how much he likes raping people.” (You can tell he likes it, not just from the enraging lyrics, but because they had the…

  • Pre-Opera Pining

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Gay Divorcee before today, and I know I’ve never heard Fred Astaire hiss out this exchange: Egbert Fitzgerald: Guy, you’re not pining for that girl! Guy Holden: Pining? Men don’t pine. Girls pine. Men just… suffer. I feel you Fred, especially the way you say “suffer” with such…

  • TWIL: I Live Spitting Distance from a Potential Saint

    Evidently there’s an allegedly incorruptible saint’s body a few hundred miles from my house. It doesn’t seem that remarkable, somehow. There are bog people. And I have to wonder how many other non-embalmed people are dug up and are still in good shape after a few years. is it a common occurrence and only gets…

  • Rewriting the Novel: Too Much

    My plan was to work on the novel again over Memorial Day weekend … and did I? No. And why? Because after several years of working on this blatant therapy, it occurred to me that what I have as the middle needs to be pushed up to the first quarter. That would be better, I…

  • Baby Birthday

    The first raccoon babies actually came out on Monday, but I didn’t have my camera by me. It gets earlier every year. This mom actually has six babies: one more than is typical. There are videos, but Gary hasn’t been motivated to upload them.

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 5/25

    This week the cloud collage went from this: …to this. …and I’m done with that. That’s it for clouds for now. Goal clouds:

  • Garden Disaster or Garden Opportunity

    I scattered Preen weed killer / fertilizer all throughout the garden, forgetting to avoid the six year-old bugleweed and creeping Jenny I cultivated so it spills artfully over the wall and softens the transition from the rocks to the lirope. So now all that is dead. I could replant it, or I could see if…

  • Laundry Detritus

    This is a gross tale. I can only hope that my experience can help someone else in a similar situation. For two days this week I have noticed this weird rubbery substance in various spots in the laundry room. It was like long thin strips of some shredded material. White, a little frilly, had lots…

  • Opera Review: Treemonisha

    One thing about watching the promenade at the opera is that you’ll easily identify the individuals who stand out. (Sadly, no one else wove a tree tableau in her hair as I did. I was a lonely woodland princess.) Many others stood out. The man in the white robes. The woman in the pink dress…