Musings of a Vivid Dreamer

I was trying to arrange an enormous pile of gladiolus, lilies and various wild flowers (Black-eyed Susans and daisies) into a makeshift vase -made from a repurposed pig trough- onto which I had mosaiced broken shards from actual Wedgewood dinner plates…when suddenly my silky black puppy wiggled and squeezed her way through the mail slot […]

Rewire Your Brain To Regain Childhood Excitement About Life

“our genes are open to being influenced throughout our lifetime, both by what we do and by what we think, feel and believe. Much like the impacts of diet, exercise and environmental toxins, various thought patterns have been shown to turn certain genes “on” or “off.” ”

MOOD JIGSAW (what I found after translating a Chinese article)

As in,

“Where’s the cat?”

“Sleeping on Giddy.”

Or this:

“You are exceptionally comfy this afternoon, Ms. Moonbeam.”

Delphinapterus Leucas in a Small Town

“A tree is best measured when it is down—and so it is with people.” —from a documentary on creative process, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, which was released in 1987. Lincoln: The War Years… Bob Wilson is right. It is true of people too. When society […]

Crows To Roses

“The power of morality is not something that is talked about much these days, especially among contemporary people. But when we look at it from the point of view of commitments as a form of morality, and when we SEE how the Buddhists treat making and keeping commitments as a form of morality, then we can come to a better understanding of Ghandi’s work and how it continues to reverberate with us.”

Resisting The Horrifying Gib Gnab! Be an Active Pareidolian Today!

stream of consciousness:
a literary style in which a character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust are among its notable early exponents.

Visual Thinking…I love imagery.

Holy Dust Motes I wrote a poem in 1999 about dust and how it danced in beams of colored light from my church’s stained glass windows. For years I perseverated about anything dust related. Painting The Chameleon Every Day What does that phrase even mean? Well, chameleons change to suit their environment. For people who […]

Collecting New Associations

I’ve always liked to collect. My middle son shares this trait. Some things he is currently collecting, or has collected: pepper shakers (not salt), traffic cones, ID/name tags, dice… I’ve collected or are currently collecting: wooden sailors, cat figurines, Buddhas, rocks, salt and pepper shakers, pens, cacti, African American figurines, crane/claw game prizes… I love […]

Autism Through My Lens

The principal was furious! She did not care how he made his environment more tolerable on the bus, but when it came to her school, she was not willing to make allowances for him. She did not want to assign someone to be with him in the weight room, for example, even though we explained that this would cut out a very stimulating part of his day. He’d been walking through the door at home, exploding with pent up overstimulation! And he was threatening to his siblings and cutting himself too. She was not agreeing to ANYTHING we proposed.

Recollecting

Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time. —H.P. Lovecraft The whole premise behind the “floating” or “illusion” or invisible” necklace, is that evenly spaced pearls, stones, and/or beads are strung along a nearly transparent nylon ‘fishing line’ which lays suspended against the throat. See image […]

Survivors’ Hope

In 1999, an editor named Robert took a chance on me and published a nonfiction essay of mine in his literary magazine at March Street Press. Then he published my fiction story in the following issue. (No pay of course.) But seeing your writing in print those first few times is a thrill. Little did […]

A Bat As Bathos, or Remembering that Nonsense Wakes Up The Brain Cells (Quote from Dr. Suess)

The lane debouched into a close-bitten field, and out of this empty land the farm rose up with its buildings like a huddle of old, painted vessels floating in still water…

A Visual Blog, Some Favorite Pictures, From Ants To Mimes

About seven years ago I walked into a friend’s kitchen and saw a surprising sight. Ants were marching- swarming really– the butter dish, the corners of the counter top, the dish sponge. Ew!. What to do? We tried an ant killer called Revenge which promised that it’s “weather resistant granules attracts and kills both sweet and […]

Mrs. Weed’s Peculiar Life

I watched appalled from our upstairs kitchen window as people from all over our neighborhood pulled their cars up to her vacant house and unashamedly dug up her tulip bulbs, pulled up her daffodils, dug out rose bushes, and yanked up black eyed susans and daisies.

St. Patrick’s Day Pondering

I was getting ready to leave for the funeral parlor and make “arrangements” when I felt compelled to spend my newly widowed status crawling around on my hands and knees in the backyard. My mother in law watched from the living room window, mouthing the words to her daughter: What is she doing out there? You see, I was looking for yet more four-leafed clovers…

Contemplating Bad News or What I Learned About Life By Being An Artist

I ponder, I recollect, I remember, I forgive, I pour over the pictures in my mind and also in my boxes and albums. Perhaps he does the same; but like the day he grabbed the shovel while I simultaneously held the potato chip bag, he gets down to the basics of things. We are different but not so different, really.

The Importance of Signatures and Other Legacies

The Importance of Signatures and Other Legacies
“Once I swallow this chemical concoction of mystery foods, my body’s going to be playing 20 questions. More chemicals here than a chemistry lab!”
“I NEVER listen to my voice mails. If they want to get in touch with me, they can text me.”

WEIRD, ISN’T IT?

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
Dr. Seuss

Spread It Like Fertilizer

A fresh faced Jack Klugman (of Quincy and Odd Couple fame) played an alcoholic horn player in an old black and white Twilight Zone episode. (Shows like Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock, and Thriller can be found on the ME network). His character couldn’t get a gig at a nightclub […]

Help Me Appreciate How Awesome This Is

“Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.” ― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

Art Is Important! Expression Is Vital To The Human Condition

Art Is Important! Expression Is Vital To The Human Condition! We’ve been in the midst of a so called blizzard here in the Nor’ East. Blizzard Colby to be exact, but I hardly call 15 inches a blizzard. Anyway the news was remarking upon the large number of babies that were born during the blizzard. Gee, I wonder how many of them will be named Colby… I was sick with flu for a week before the storm came with sweats, 103 degree fever, chills lasting hours, head pain, coughing, congestion, etc. I think without creative expression I might’ve had a terrible time of being a shut-in. But I’ll tell you one of the things I did.

Some thought provoking oddities

here is: a grisly, ghastly, frightful, horrid, horrifying, hideous, horrible, horrendous, grim, awful, dire, dreadful, terrible, horrific, shocking, appalling, disgusting, repulsive, repugnant, revolting, repellent, sickening—

Kid Things and Adult Reflection

Did you know that Play-Doh was originally an all white moldable wallpaper cleaner? There was a lot of soot on the wallpaper back then. People used to make a cleaning mixture mixing flour, salt, water and some chemicals to roll up and down the wall to take off the soot. Then Kutol, an early Play-Doh […]

Faux Shopping and Toilet Fishing: Free and Inexpensive Ways To Have Fun

Have you ever fake-shopped? I enjoy shopping, the whole process: selection of color, comparison of prices, etc. That is to say I enjoy almost the entire shopping process: I don’t much enjoy the “checking out” part of it unless it is something I’ve saved for. That’s where fake shopping fills the void —the void that […]

An Overview of Mimes and The Importance of Silence

I got my first computer around 1994. It arrived in a classic Gateway box. Said an astute friend of mine: “Don’t go carting that box off to the curb or you’ll tip off thieves you’ve got a new computer. Rob me, you may as well say.” I don’t know why they used a cow theme: It […]

Art, Auties, a Call For Submissions, and a Catawampus Tilted Brain

Synchronicity is a funny thing. It surprises you as you go about your day to day activities. Take for example, owls. And catawampus things. The other day, I looked out over my view of the world from my living room; a short expanse of backyard, a slight hill that tapers into a tree-lined ditch which […]

We are all a part of the landscape

In 2001, (pre-nine eleven) when George W. Bush took office (after a close race with Gore… remember the hanging chad debacle?), dozens of computers were discovered with missing W keys. This “prank” did not extend to the West Wing, although in other areas of the White House, they were pried clean off the […]

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many […]

Under The Banana Moon (the book) Undergoing an Exciting New Look

Under The Banana Moon is undergoing some changes. Available for purchase here: http://www.amazon.com/Under-Banana-Moon-Living-Aspergers/dp/150572886X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422058266&sr=1-1&keywords=under+the+banana+moon The paperback version is available online at Amazon now. The book cover is undergoing an entirely new look! I’ve fixed a typo in this version; and added pictures inside. To order it in the original version, please inbox me at gnightelizabeth@gmail.com and I […]

I’d like to share: Teaching us to be Silent.

This post (see link below) is written by and reflects the views of Alyssa Hillary. I identify with some of it. It’s not a political statement. It’s written about social skills groups which are often a “tool” used for autistics. She is writing from an autistic point of view as to why these well intended […]

Christmas and Stuff

I’ve always lived 2 and a 1/2 hours from Massachusetts; even as a child. I was born there but my parents were living in Connecticut at the time of my birth. When I was growing up, there weren’t as many safety laws in place. When my adoption in Mass. was finalized, I was about 3 […]

Chap 16 of my Under The Banana Moon Book to turn into a Dance Performance!

Exciting update: Wonderful news. What a lovely Christmas present for me. I’ve just heard that Spoke N Motion Dance, led by Brian Be, is going to do a live performance of Chapter 16 of my book Under The Banana Moon. I can’t wait to see their interpretation of my life and words. I will post […]

Here on Earth 12/18/14, Truth Trumps Fiction

My librarian told me a story recently as I checked out books (two of which I would read all the way through with sustained interest, one that I would happily be engrossed with and the fourth I would end up returning after reading ten pages). One of the books I checked out (the one I […]

Look for the learning

In Stephen King’s novel, “Revival,” his main character describes “those people that pop up in your life like the Joker in a deck of cards,” the ones who end up being “change agents” in your life. That is to say; people who end up being catalysts for change in your life. That’s the way you […]

Advice From a Guy With PTSD

My father (who was a Robert Mitchum look alike) used to wake up swinging. Anyone who’s read my book Under The Banana Moon knows he was a laid back optimistic guy with more serotonin coursing through him than I can ever hope to have! But yeah, I’m sure now it was Posttraumatic Stress “Disorder,” a […]

The Art of Forgiving

When I was expecting my third child, I wanted to name her Georgiana; George or Georgie for short… but my spouse didn’t care for the name. So she was named Kerry. But since she is transgender, he wants to be called Silis. What’s in a name? Uranus wasn’t always Uranus. The astronomer William Herschel discovered […]

10 Oddisms, Unusual Stories and Interesting Things

1) Jesus Statue Has Real Teeth photo Credit: ENCRyM-INAH As this photo shows, there used to be a tradition in which people donated body parts to churches. Upon being given an X-Ray, this statue was found to have actual human teeth in it. The photo below shows the actual statue (courtesy http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/lord-almighty-300-year-old-jesus-statue-found-have-human-n183471 ). In 2014, Fanny […]

Childhood Reminiscing, What IS “Conventional” Anyway?

me, what a looker! my mother and I, She kept the bathing suit. I still have it, (the red and white striped bikini) —the elastic is shot but I still have it. Matter of fact, I think, 49 yrs. later, my father still has that brown shirt blowing on the line! I’m not kidding. My […]

Some Of The Patterns To Be Found At Mohegan Sun

Oh the patterns to be seen at Mohegan Sun. Didn’t gamble, but enjoyed seeing the sights in the shopping areas. Pardon the blurry. Here are some of them: on the way in in the sweets store looking in the corners gold dragonfly on the floor amongst inlaid shells and glass my favorite section of floor […]

From Singing Bananas to Vests

I was a bit under the weather today, aches, pains, etc. Had a test at the hospital this morning. I had an MRI, and I never have trouble in those things. But this morning was different. I felt so claustrophobic! I kept thinking of that old Vincent Price movie where someone’s buried alive and tries […]

A BLOG ABOUT ____________ .

The process of blog writing has to start with a thought. Letters, words form, then sentence by sentence by sentence the thoughts become paragraphs. There’s a little loop like a curl; a threadlike line hanging off the last word in my last paragraph inside my head; so carefully […]

On Roadside Ruminations

A poem by James Richardson— ESSAY ON WOOD At dawn when rowboats drum the dock and every door in the breathing house bumps softly as if someone were leaving quietly, I wonder if something in us is made of wood, maybe not quite the heart, knocking softly, or maybe not made of it, but […]

My 101st blog

WILHELM: This has the distinction of being my 101st blog; which is more of an achievement to me than having completed my 100th blog, because 101 has two ones in it and as such is a better number than 100! That said I wanted to mention the infamous Wilhelm scream. It can be heard […]

CAN WE TALK? (about pet peeves)

You know that book: “Eats Shoots and Leaves” (by Lynne Truss)? I used to think it was about some kind of mammal, maybe a panda, that eats shoots and leaves. Then I put on my glasses and noticed the comma: “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.” Now that implies that someone eats, then shoots, then leaves… Entirely […]

on refrigerators, trees and dust

When the refrigerator door swings closed, it flattens a button located somewhere in the refrigerator’s interior. Once said button is depressed, a small light bulb winks out and the inside of the refrigerator is cast into darkness. Now that’s an indisputable fact. Some people cross-examine it nonetheless: “Fact or not, […]

Interpretting White Roses

salus in ardunis sancte et sapienter Alice In Wonderland Syndrome…(or as it’s also called: Todd’s Syndrome or Lillipution Hallucinations) sounds made-up but it’s a very real condition. People seem fine optically, but they have weird visual perceptions. They have what’s termed a “rare form of migraine” (migrainous ischemia?). All of their senses are strangely distorted. The […]

URNS Dilemma

URNS Check this out: These are on display in the corner of my cellar. The four of them, (two pets, two people) have been on display for some time now. I know it’s a bit of a macabre theme but go with it. Think of this as a pre-Halloween blog or something. It’s become a dilemma, […]

Between hell and hopelessness: Works In Progress

I don’t understand it. Am I taking the weight of the woeful world’s troubles on and internalizing it? Lately I’ve had trouble seeing the positive side of things. I won’t mention the bullying, cruelty and atrocious acts I’m referring to here, but you have access to media; you know what I mean. Even if I […]

Note to the Child Me

NOTE TO MY CHILD SELF I’m an adult with sensory sensitivities and diagnoses of both Aspergers and selective mutism. I remember what it was like to be a child with those challenges. At the time, I thought that because I was so different from everyone else that I must have be an alien dropped […]

IF

If it weren’t for the moon, to slow Earth’s spin, we’d have 6 hour days instead of 24. If Teddy Roosevelt hadn’t been carrying his speech in a metal eyeglasses container that October night in 1912 when John Schrank shot him, the bullet would’ve killed him. If Al Capone hadn’t compulsively carried his trademark mirror […]

Crosses

I take pictures of crosses that appear naturally, for the most part, that is to say- they have to be found, not placed on purpose. So you see, crosses on churches are not pictured here. I am sharing some of my found crosses. Here they are: Above: See the cross on my father’s shed? This […]

Reflections On a Life, Ghoti equals FISH, ALS challenge

“Poopsy. Come back,” It was my father’s voice on the CB radio. “Come back” meant something like “Do you copy me? Do you here me? Please reply.” My husband was driving. We were on the way to New Hampshire for a vacation; my only child at the time was 5 or 6 and asleep in […]

I will always see W’s on Bulldogs now

“She has double-u’s all over her,” said my two and a 1/2 year old granddaughter. “What? Minnie the dog has ‘W’s” all over her? Really?” I replied to her, laughing. At first I thought that this was a form of Onomatopeia (which is Greek for making up words to explain noise; but in […]

Is It Profound or Is It Poop?

Have you heard about the tiny skeletons appearing on the streets of Mexico? Urban artist Isaac Cordal can tell you about them. He created them. The following quote is from his website, which has a link following this blog: “These small sculptures contemplate the demolition and reconstruction of everything around us. They catch the attention […]

Just Random Photos

Boston photos I took Below: Boston Aquarium Top two pictures: photo credits Kerry Tucker BELOW: master of camouflage (above) photo credit: Al Phaneuf Do you see it? There’s a bird hiding here. Found this bathroom mural in the arts district New Haven left: I made this mini Van […]

Bait Shop Sexism

I’ve been meaning to vent about something. A few months ago, I was determined to resume fishing as a Spring/Summer ‘hobby.’ Mind you, my father took me all the time when I was growing up. “Gender-specific activities” were not imposed upon my child self. It was the same to everyone if I wanted to squat […]

Thou Art Inspiring

My grandson said recently: “Grandma enjoys stress. It gives her something to do.” This is my bathroom shower curtain. The curtain was purchased at Walmart.As you can see, it’s an oceanic world, an underwater scene of fish and coral. Every week I buy stickers and when my grandson sleeps over, he puts them into the scene. […]

Emotions With No Name

Where can you find the remains of a giraffe, an upright dining table, a claw hand and silver bars worth millions (all in the same place)? Underwater, in NYC, that’s where. Weird finds in New York’s waterways are the inspiration for fictional stories on a “digital journal” called Underwater New York. But I’m more interested […]

BRAIN PLUMAGE

“You see yourself descending From the building to the ground And you watch the sky receding And you spin to see the traffic Rising up and it’s so quiet Then you wake”–Adam Duritz I went to an IMax theater in Boston last week and saw a docu-film in 3-D about South Pacific sea life. […]

A more interesting word without “U”

Obscure: the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant. I forgot the library’s closed on Mondays and it was there on my shelf so I picked up my memoir. For some obscure reason, (imagine ME obscure? Right, I know) I decided to reread my book “Under the Banana Moon.” Well actually it can be […]

Sharp Little Pencil Addresses My Faux Pas and Makes Me Smile

I need to get something out of my system: “Fizzling Fireboxes!” “Well… Flatten my funnel!” “Oh! Trembly tracks!” There, that’s better. I’ve been watching CPTV’s Thomas The Tank Engine with a 2 year old. Thomas gets into mischief on that program. He’s called the “cheeky” engine for a reason. He’s also an example for […]

Rantings of a logophile

I’m into obscure things. If you’ve read this blog you already know that. This forum, for me, is kind of an information purge of sorts. It’s like a safe place where I can say things like moon pigeons and alphabet juice and electric ketchup. Oddball conundrums keep my brain cells happy. Let me explain the […]

Life is a Fractal; RIP Maya

The essence of living things are cascades of fractals. Related patterns recur enthusiastically at progressively smaller scales… seemingly random but decidely chaotic. Deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA) with its double helix entwined like a ladder. Cells. Fractals are seen with the “naked” eye, as in this beehive: And they are unseen (as in this close-up view of […]

It Rains Diamonds on Uranus; Happy Mother’s Day Carol

…I was thinking that sometimes inspiration isn’t so bold that it’s wearing a velour jumpsuit. Sometimes it’s as simple as a cartwheeling spider or a rainbow tree. Noticing (and seeking out) beautiful eccentricities enhance my life. But I’m getting ahead of myself… So, picture this: A young black man is scheduled as keynote speaker to […]

Passions Pursued, HONY, Pandora and Unicorns

“They were expecting it to be nothing but unicorns shitting rainbows…” Ever browse Humans Of New York (HONY)? Think this: a photographer named Brandon who admits to, at some point being obsessed with things like aquariums, piano, baritone, New York City, etc. His current passion brings us pictures of New Yorkers, taken in a purposely […]

Work ethic, Dr. Suess and if I was a Tree

I ‘met’ someone recently who used to work in retail and I did my share of that too so I was reminiscing about my years ‘working with the public.’ I told him that I did my best. That’s all anyone can do. I found lots of expired merchandise in my “Health […]

Interview With a Fellow Aspergian

This blog is in honor of both “National Library Week” (April 13th to 19th) and “Asperger Awareness Month” (April); although designated weeks and months are hardly reasons to blog about e-mails received quite “out of the blue” from interesting people who’ve actually read ALL of my blogs. I assure you readers, […]

it’s that month again, here’s what I’ve been up to, in part

the infamous puzzle piece? Yeah I know, it’s very cliche Here’s what I’ve been up to: (Keep in mind there are several links on this blog. Don’t forget to come back and read the rest…Or click them when you finish reading…) http://barkingsycamores.wordpress.com/current-issue/ The above link is from a “neurodivergent” sister site on wordpress who […]

Queen Anne’s Lace and violent outbursts of energy

I love this so-called weed. Don’t go there. This blog is not about that kind of weed. I mean an actual weed. It’s roots smell like carrots. It’s leaves smell like parsley. When seeds form, the flower is a balled up nest. Its white cluster of flowers form an umbrella. It’s the white Queen Anne’s […]

Young Women making a difference: Amy Gravino, Dani Bowman, Erin Clemens

Living in the eastern part of the U.S. in this cold winter of ’14 (if you are anything like me) has made me somewhat of a bibliobibuli; that is to say; lost in books and not too involved in nature or in ‘the world.’ My standard book consumption […]

J. Moore’s Book, Memory, and Tattooed Pigs

JJ has this theory that memory is still there; like in a computer; in the recesses of your brain. Like you never really forget things; not even in regard to Alzheimers. He feels that you never really delete anything from your hard drive per se. As in with […]

Cypress Knees. Because.

Cypress trees grow in marshlands and swamps. They make the most amazing pieces of furniture… Furniture I will never own; will never afford. take this table for example: http://www.thomsonrusticfurnishings.com sells this lovely functional piece of cypress tree art: Below I’ve put a picture of cypress ‘knees’ as they appear in a swamp… (What are […]

Some of Crows’ and Ravens’ Roles in Fairy Tales and myth and Literature

I think of ravens and crows interchangeably. I can’t help it; I just do. Ravens are bigger in size although there are other differences too; like their voices. Supposedly the crow can say ‘uh-huh’, ‘caw’, ‘eh-aw’, ‘kow’, ‘aww’, and sound real nasal, whereas the raven is harsher and says things like ‘kraa’, or it makes […]

Peeves, Yeats, Hurdles, Goldilocks, importance of full stops

I function “best” when I’m in the Goldilocks zone. That is to say, when it’s not ‘too’ this, and it’s not ‘too’ that. When everything is going along just right in the world in a nice practiced routine. But who doesn’t function best like that, right? But take for instance a family member I once […]

Loss of A Dear Friend, Zsolt Megai

Please don’t be put off by the length of this. I’m not sure how long it will roll on; but I’ve lost a dear friend so here goes. It was October of 2007 when I first met Zsolt Megai. My husband had died in 2005 and The Ct […]

weather patterns, Donna Williams, fruit salad, Buddha

Donna Williams says (in a brilliant analogy) that autism is a fruit salad, which I infer to mean, that everyone’s fruit bowl looks a bit different. Mine has Aspergers bananas in it, with selective mutism lemons, sensory processing dysfunction prickly pears, and dysthymic mangos. There are other fruits in there too. Like anxious horned melon […]

Go ahead and make my day

You always think it’ll be an “ordinary” day, but as soon as you begin to forget to remember that everything is extraordinary, that’s when you get reminders to pay attention. Routines, beloved routines! Embrace them; for one never knows when they may be put on hold. (“The Spirit filters through what I want and shows […]

10 Genius Minds With Surprising Habits and Pasttimes

EINSTEIN: The lake was as smooth as a sheet of glass. Not a breeze stirred. Who would take their sailboat out with nary a breeze to stir a nostril hair? Einstein. He said, “I like the challenge.” I would suppose that’s how new solutions unveil themselves to attentive minds. An attentive mind he surely had. […]

A repost

Here is a post I had published on another site, called SQUAG https://www.squag.com/3473/

Augusten Burroughs and me and also Egyptians and Stuff

“Guess I have to kill you now”, I joked during our ‘bathroom time’. He rolled his eyes and had this stern face which was his mask, the ‘mask of ALS’ (Lou Gehirgs) as it was called in the newsletter we got delivered to the house. His facial muscles were so weak that he had a […]

Here Be Dragons…When Pipes Are Not Pipes

Stephen King once wrote a short story about the heyday of youth with all it’s freshness and trials. He called youth: Pony days. We all have a brief time as ponies. There were two times during my pony years that I was given horses and both times my father said no, absolutely not, she can […]

Christmas is… and isn’t

Do you get a little sick of all the warm-fuzzy hoo-ha this time of year? I’m not embarrassed to admit that I buy into all the good cheer to an extent and then slowly I feel like…where’s the New Year? I want all this behind me now. I wasn’t even going to get a tree […]

SOME OF MY PAINTINGS, here ART thou

(above-my version of a Van Gogh) (above-my version of a Monet)

Digging In Boxes

Digging In Boxes There are ‘noun friendly’ languages like English and then there are ‘verb friendly’ languages like Korean, Hindi, and Japanese. In the latter languages, nouns are frequently dropped and names for activities are emphasized in the earliest years of life when parents are teaching children to speak. On the other hand, parents […]

Resistance to Change and Toilet Tissue and Birds and Stuff

I was thinking about adaptations, about how “equipped” living organisms are to survive within given environments. And also, I was thinking about how ill-equipped I often ‘feel.’ Some birds that are incapable of flight—– like Penguins and Ostriches (because they do not fly), have eggs that are round as opposed […]

She asked me, How does Aspergers feel? Read my book Under The Banana Moon or start by reading this blog

I noticed a message in my facebook inbox. A person affiliated with a selective mutism awareness group asked me a question that should’ve been easy for me to answer. She said, “What does it feel like to have aspergers?” I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to reply to her. After […]

Neologism, weight loss, rebuilding Lost Identity

I’ve become a shack again. My body is no longer my temple. Time to rebuild. I’ve done it before. I’ve done it many times in the course of this life. Redesigned my self… There’s a lot that goes into that: rational belief, toughness, emotional strength, endurance, resilience and the jump starter: desire. Example: I’ve been […]

A lifetime alone………..with #Aspergers

A kindred soul.

Peas roll, right? House Elves and such

It never failed. My then 6 year old son would drop a pea on the yellowed linoleum floor during his favorite supper of meatloaf, peas and baked potato and a few seconds later it was gone. Peas roll, right? I can’t answer that because our fallen peas didn’t stay on the floor long enough for […]

Acts Of Kindness and the HEART

My grandmother died when I was about 13 years old. It’s the last thing I expected even though she was nearly 90. (Or was she in her 90s? Memory fades that detail…) To a child, death only happens to other people; not to people you know. It was a special relationship. I was mute most […]

Animal Menagerie…Animal Rescuing

I have always been a rescuer. When I was 13, I had this cat named Theresa (tree-sa) (named because I’d climbed a tree to rescue her while out for a bike ride on dirt back-roads). I had way too many animals and knew my mother would say no, so I hid Theresa, her black and […]

Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

Imagine writing and illustrating a book so bizarre (but intriguing) that decades later people are still drawn to it and NO ONE has been able to decode the secret language you made up, nor are they able to understand what your mind boggling illustrations mean?! Hey that’s a feat, eh? Look at one of the […]

Fascinating modern architecture to 1700 manor houses…it’s all good

Recently I’ve been reflecting about architecture. I’m reading a historical book called The Manor: Three centuries at a slave plantation on Long Island by Mac Griswold. This 70 year old woman, Mac, is a cultural landscape historian, a fascinating job. When she was a little girl in the 1950s growing up in New Jersey, […]

Under the banana moon finally has an official website

http://mercurygirl49.wix.com/underthebananamoon-1 Finally my book has an official website. After days of working on this site for my book, I can get back to blogging! Kim

Feeling around in a flowery diction

Have you ever felt you resided inside that place in a harmonica where moist breath and music meet? Have you ever felt like one of those perfectly imperfect pine trees that grow sideways on golf courses? Ok well have you ever felt like a collection of soft blue, pink, white grey lint, like the kind […]

Stroll Through Vermont (in my head)

Cloud collecting mountains surround. Unpaved roads ramble. Roadside produce stands are unmanned by vendors. A locked metal box with a slit in the top is seen amongst the piles of tomatoes, squash and ears of corn with a handwritten note beside it: HONOR SYSTEM- Set your price and leave money in box No views on […]

Magic and Innovative Art in A Sisyphean World

This poster is an example of some unusual art I came across quite by happy accident some years ago. The Empty Set Project Space was active sporadically as a gallery between 2001 and 2008. It […]

The Flourish of Names, Signatures from the Past and Present

Can you believe this signature of Jacob (Jack) Lew, treasury secretary? I love it. No one else did. After all it was destined for an appearance on U.S. currency for the duration of his tenure. You know those signatures on money?He was asked to submit a more legible signature to grace […]

Believe In People and also Levi Brown, “Graffiti” and Photography/Art taken to New Lengths!

There is a mysterious local New Haven artist going only by the moniker: ‘Believe In People,’ often shortened to BIP. Watch out! A giant baby holding a briefcase-wielding businessman! This particular painting ‘sprung’ up “guerrilla style” on the side of a business along State Street. In this instance, the painter had the permission of the […]

Fun fun fun Playing With Words

A shot in the dark. —– A dot in the shark. A self constructed riddle or—– A self constricted ruddle? Hmmm, twisting words. A deliberate error of speech or sometimes simply the accidental play on words with corresponding vowels, consonants or morphemes ( smallest grammatical unit in language) are switched within a phrase. These fun […]