August 31, 2010 – 1:59 am
This week’s Tuesday’s with Ty is not an essay. Sometimes life is inspired by sound bytes (or parrot bytes as it were). In honor of 15 years of cartoons playing on the television (supposedly for the parrots) and the subsequent quotes on the fly in my home, please enjoy a couple of our favorite clips. [...]
August 24, 2010 – 4:57 am
Much to the dismay of my animals, I returned from a long trip out-of-state to spend the entire weekend in front of my computer. In my last two homes my office was hidden away, safe from the diversion of parrots and dogs and falcons. I’m not convinced if the Ghetto House has the perfect layout [...]
August 10, 2010 – 5:31 am
Most nights lately, I dream that I have to move again. I wrestle with my finances and how to pay for a deposit and moving expenses in my sleep. I wonder where I will fly the falcons and if I am allowed to have a dog where I’m going. And then I wonder why the [...]
When I was in High School I would sit in my room for hours playing guitar and singing. With no sisters or brothers, computer or personal phone line, I was desperate for company. A part of me must have thought if you sang the world was listening.
I don’t know how my grandparents stood it, quite [...]
Life is distracting. It always has been. A winged silhouette above the freeway, a flash of color crossing the office window, the smell of something delightful cooking at a neighbor’s house will cause me to veer and forget what I was doing. Who could blame me? My distraction has made me a witness to things [...]
Ty spent three days at the bottom of his cage, ripping every bit of available newspaper into tiny strips.
When there was nothing left to shred, he launched into the African grey parrot version of a full-blown tantrum, beak clamped on the cage corner and feet kicking as if to dig a hole to Africa –and [...]
I woke up the other morning without a voice, which apparently isn’t a problem in my house.
“Good morning,” Ty said as I entered the room and when I gave him a dirty look, he sighed and yawned. The coffee was already brewing and was my first stop. I poured myself a cup, lifted it for [...]
I didn’t used to hate summer.
When I was a child I adored the hot months. There was nothing I loved more than the ocean bathed in mid-afternoon heat. Of course, with my skin that meant –burn, blister and peel.
My grandmother chased after me constantly with sunscreen and vitamin E, but I still relished sloughing off [...]
I did the math today and in his fifteen years Ty has moved house more than a dozen times, one more than a dozen, in fact. This is lucky number 13.
We made the first move from a condo in Riverside when Ty was only two and had just started to label his world. This was [...]
Ty has spent two weeks watching me pack with disinterest. We are moving again, sooner than usual, but not a surprise.
As the house slowly converts into an obstacle course, he has been more interested in me than the changing landscape. He watches me distract myself with things forgotten, holding them up to light or up [...]
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