Break Through These Times of Trouble

Break Through These Times of Trouble

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
This is a love story. It is not unique. I've lived others like it, and so have you. Like many love stories, this one ends with tears, confusion, and a lot of reminiscing about its beginning. Where it began was 1991, a time in my memory that is strange, dark, and forever distorted by a thick layer of time and smoke. It was an unhappy time, immersed in anger, abuse, and large amounts of cheap booze. My mother and my boyfriend at the time had a weird and wildly inappropriate thing going on together. When I'd catch them in the act, they responded by telling me I was crazy. I felt crazy. This was compounded by the fact that we three lived in the same house. I wanted him to leave. She did not. Every day, I was furious and frustrated. But, one day, just as 1991 was nearly at an end, on a not so very special day in...
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The Trouble With Living Things

The Trouble With Living Things

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
I was never allowed to have a cat. Except for one brief moment, when I was five years old. My mother and her boyfriend rented a farm house where we did not farm anything. We had a couple of dogs. One was black lab who played with me in the snow and stole my dolls to use for chew toys. I loved the dogs, but I wanted a cat so badly. I begged until Mom finally relented and let me get a kitty.Kittens play non-stop and engage in feisty kitten activities like scratching couches, pouncing at curtains and making sneak attacks at shoe laces. My mom didn't care much for that, so with each scratch or pounce, I watched in helpless horror as she shot my kitten with a pellet gun, shooting hard plastic pellets at my pet. It didn't last long. One day, the kitten was gone. I was told it had gone to live in the barn that...
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Cruel Summer

Cruel Summer

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." -John Lennon* * * "This is going to be the best year EVER," Olivier said, holding up his pinky finger."Hell yes," I said. "This is going to be OUR year." I wrapped my little finger around his and we sealed our pact. We had just returned from our turbulent holiday adventure in the U.S. and were only a couple of weeks into the new year.He patted me on the leg. "2010 is going to be awesome.""Fuckin' A right," I said.So it was decided, then. We had endured some stress last year. Nothing that we couldn't handle. Most of it was the usual shit that everyone else gets stressed about. Sure, at the end of the year, there was travel & holiday stress coupled with some family drama, but... no biggie. Next year would be better. It would be OUR year.Much like George Costanza, when he triumphantly declared, "This will be...
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Angela’s Son, the Teacher Man

Angela’s Son, the Teacher Man

by Rasmenia Comment Closed
"You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave." -Frank McCourt"I began to look at other religions, Buddhism and so on, and realized there is another way of looking at life. A more benign way of looking at life." -Frank McCourt"I had to get rid of any idea of hell or any idea of the afterlife. That's what held me, kept me down." -Frank McCourtFrank McCourt  1930-2009.[tags]Frank McCourt, author, death[/tags]...
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