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Frances3
elissanelson
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tell me
Tell me. Tell me the truth, tell me a good lie. Tell me something you never told anybody, tell me something you're always telling everyone.
tell me
archaic
I never was really as archaic as I wished I was. I like to think I'd be all steam-punky if I was in high school now, but I'd probably just be the same dork I was. My jeans would be boot-cut instead of pegged, but...yeah. My Doc Martens would(more)
high sch... | reading
still here
Megan and I gave each other a high five about this this morning: we are still here.

We could not be. But we are. Her in spite of the MS, me in spite of the brain tumor.
(more)
non-fict... | survival
we knew it would
I hope I don't ever forget it, though it's kind of a miracle that it's lingered this long.

My great-grandma died when I was three. But she gave me so much love in those first three years of my life. More love than a lot of people gave(more)
choose w... | fiction | family
I missed
I missed my grandma's birthday this year. She's been dead for eighteen years now, but I have a list of birthdays in my planner, and I always recopy her name and birthday onto it, every year.

But now there's fucking facebook, which tells me every day whose birthday(more)
non-fict... | loss
in excess of
My uncle Frank always said things were "in excess of." My dad said it was because he'd been in the army, in a unit that figured out what to call things.  My dad said that if the army hadn't made him crazy-ish (and then my mom would say, "Not crazy-ish,(more)
fiction | family | uncle Fr...
what you say
What you say is never appropriate. Some places, you think, they'd recognize how smart you are, how brilliant some of these thoughts of yours are, but here? In your life as it is now, people ignore you, or roll their eyes, or sometimes manage both.
(more)
fiction | misunder...
still searching
I lost my favorite pepper mill three years ago. Exactly three years ago as of next Tuesday, March 8. & yeah, you can replace a pepper mill. But the nice ones are expensive. Plus my dad gave it to me, and he's no longer with us. I mean yeah,(more)
pepper m... | dad dies | fiction
she finds him
She's not even looking. She's totally not looking. But then there he is. She finds him. That's what he says later, making it sound like a joke. But she-maybe at first she thinks it's a joke, but she quickly decides it isn't. It's just how he operates. Which is(more)
fiction | family
stuttering
I never stuttered for real. Only sometimes around Elmer, to keep him company. The first time I did it he glared at me, and my explanation was dumb, I don't remember what it was, I just remember it was dumb. But I didn't laugh about it at all, and(more)
stutteri... | fiction | Elmer
snare drum
I really love the family upstairs. They're awesome. And I know the mom wasn't any happier about the snare drum than I was. Maybe that's not completely true--I think living downstairs from it, and not knowing when it was coming, might have been harder than having it in your(more)
fiction | neighbor... | neighbor...
the waiting
At least when you know what you're waiting for, it's not as awful. That's what I think, anyway.

Sometimes it can still be pretty awful, okay. But I do think the knowing helps.
(more)
fiction
upside down
I loved my sister's cat so much. Mary Jane. And she named it when she was five--I think she just thought Mary Jane seemed like a good name. Which it is. It was. Definitely a good name for a cat! Especially for Mary Jane.
(more)
fiction | cats
didn't get any
Didn't get any play from Alfredo. Not the three nights he slept over on the couch, not any of the days afterwards when he came by to play with Kalya--though that would've been weird, to mess around with my baby niece's daddy when he came over to hang out(more)
fiction | family
pizza
I grew up in Minneapolis, and Cossetta's (in St. Paul) was the best pizza ever. There was also a deep-dish Chicago style place we'd go to when we visited friends and family in Chicago that was amazing. Cossetta's is still there, about ten times as big as it was(more)
my life ... | calzones | "the sli...